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LIFE A N D VOYAGES
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payed it with a coat of tar ; furnished it with a mast and sail ; and put in provisions for himself, a Spanish comrade, and six Indians. In the meantime, Columbus wrote letters to Ovando, request ing that a ship might be immediately sent to bring him and his men to Hispaniola. He wrote a letter likewise to the sovereigns ; for, after fulfilling his mission at San" Domingo, Diego Mendez was to proceed to Spain on the admiral's affairs. In the letter to the sovereigns, Columbus depicted his deplorable situation, and entreated that a vessel might be dispatched to Hispaniola, to con vey himself and his crew to Spain. He gave a comprehensive account of his voyage, most particulars of which have already been incorporated in this history, and he insisted greatly on the importance of the discovery of Veragua. He gave it as his opinion, that here were the mines of the Aurea Chersonesus, whence Solomon had derived such wealth for the building of the Temple. He entreated that this golden coast might not, like other places which he had discovered, be abandoned to adven turers, or placed under the government of men who felt no interest in the cause. “ This is not a child,” he adds, “ to be abandoned to a step-mother. I never think of Hispaniola and Paria without weeping. Their case is desperate and past cure ; I hope their example may cause this region to be treated in a different man ner." His imagination becomes heated. He magnifies the supposed importance of Veragua, as transcending all his former discoveries ; and he alludes to his favorite project for the deliver ance of the Holy Sepulchre : " Jerusalem," he says, ” and Mount Sion, are to be rebuilt by the hand of a Christian. Who is he to be ? God, by the mouth of the Prophet, in the fourteenth Psalm,