LIFE A N D V O Y A G E S OF
350
[BOOK V I .
C H A P T E R VIII.
DISCONTENTS AT ISABELLA.—MUTINY OF PERNAL D I A Z D E PISA. [1494.]
T H E embryo city of Isabella was rapidly assuming a form.
A
dry stone wall surrounded it, to protect it from any sudden attack of the natives; although the most friendly disposition was evinced by the Indians of the vicinity, who brought supplies of their simple articles of food, and gave them in exchange for European trifles.
On the day of the Epiphany, the 6th of February, the
church being sufficiently completed, high mass was celebrated with great pomp and ceremony, by Friar Boyle and the twelve ecclesiastics.
The affairs of the settlement being thus apparently
in a regular train, Columbus, though still confined by indisposi tion, began to make arrangements for his contemplated expedition to the mountains of Cibao, when an unexpected disturbance in his little community for a time engrossed his attention. The sailing of the fleet for Spain had been a melancholy sight to many whose terms of enlistment compelled them to remain on the island.
Disappointed in their expectations of immediate
wealth, disgusted with the labors imposed on them, and appalled by the maladies prevalent throughout the community, they began to look with horror upon the surrounding wilderness, as destined to be the grave of their hopes and of themselves.
When the last