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indifference to their sufferings, but of wantonly imposing severe and unnecessary tasks upon them out of revenge for their having neglected him. The genial temper of Nicuesa had, in fact, been soured by disappointment ; and a series of harassing cares and evils had rendered him irritable and impatient ; but he was a cavalier of a generous and honorable nature, and does not appear to have enforced any services that were not indispensable to the common safety.
In fact, the famine had increased to such a degree, that,
we are told, thirty Spaniards having on one occasion found the dead body of an Indian in a state of decay, they were driven by hunger to make a meal of it, and were so infected by the horrible repast, that not one of them survived.* Disheartened by these miseries, Nicuesa determined to aban足 don a place which seemed destined to be the grave of Spaniards. Embarking the greater part of his men in the two brigantines, and the caravel which had been built by Olano, he set sail east足 ward in search of some more favorable situation for his settlement. A number of the men remained behind, to await the ripening of some maize and vegetables which they had sown.
These he left
under the command of Alonzo Nunez, whom he nominated his alcalde mayor. "When Nicuesa had coasted about four leagues to the east, a Genoese sailor, who had been with Columbus in his last voyage, informed him that there was a fine harbor somewhere in that neighborhood, which had pleased the old admiral so highly, that he had given it the name of Puerto Bello.
He added, that they
might know the harbor by an anchor, half buried in the sand, which Columbus had left there ; near to which was a fountain of * Herrera, Hist Ind., decad. i. and viii. cap. 2.