Eventually, as she broke
up, we might float away to shore much of her timber. When
I looked from the wreck to the little Nina, I could see,
limned as it were in air, the Viceroy's first colony, set in
Hispaniola, beside Guacanagari's town. All Christmas day
we toiled and the Indians at our side. We found them ready,
not without skill, gay and biddable.
Toward sunset came Guacanagari. All the little shore was
strewn and heaped with our matters. And here I will say
that no Indian stole that day though he might have stolen,
and though our possessions seemed to him great wonders
and treasure beyond estimation. What was brought from
the _Santa Maria_ lay in heaps and our men came and went.
The most of our force was ashore or in the boats; only so
many on the Nina. The Admiral, just returned to the ship,
stretched himself upon the bench in her small cabin. Powerful
was his frame and constitution, and powerfully tried
all his life with a thousand strains and buffetings! It seemed
still to hold; he looked a muscular, sinewy, strong and ruddy
man. But there were signs that a careful eye might find.
He lay upon the bench in the cabin and I, who was his
physician, brought him wine and biscuit and made him eat
and drink who, I knew, had not touched food since the
evening before; after which I told him to close eyes and
go away to Genoa and boyhood.
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