312
LIFE A N D VOYAGES OF
[BOOK
XV.
countered the whole fury of the elements. For several days they were driven about at the mercy of wind and wave, fearful each moment of shipwreck, and giving up each other as lost. The Adelantado, who commanded the ship already mentioned as being scarcely sea-worthy, ran the most imminent hazard, and nothing but his consummate seamanship enabled him to keep her afloat. At length, after various vicissitudes, they all arrived safe at Port Hermoso, to the west of San Domingo. The Adelantado had lost his long boat ; and all the vessels, with the exception of that of the admiral, had sustained more or less injury. When Columbus learnt the signal destruction that had over足 whelmed his enemies, almost before his eyes, he was deeply im足 pressed with awe, and considered his own preservation as little less than miraculous. Both his son Fernando, and the venerable historian Las Casas, looked upon the event as one of those awful judgments, which seem at times to deal forth temporal retribution. They notice the circumstance, that while the enemies of the ad足 miral were swallowed up by the raging sea, the only ship of the fleet which was enabled to pursue her voyage, and reach her port of destination, was the frail bark freighted with the property of Columbus. The evil, however, in this, as in most circumstances, overwhelmed the innocent as well as the guilty. In the ship with Bobadilla and Roldan, perished the captive Guarionex, the unfor足 tunate cacique of the Vega.* * Las Casas, Hist. Ind. lib. ii. cap. 5. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 88.