Note 403-3 — THE FOURTH VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS

During the weeks that he was shut in the River Belem Columbus had his brother explore the country. The prospects for a successful colony led him to build a small settlement and to plan to return to Spain for re-enforcements and supplies. The story is told in detail in the Historie and by Irving, Columbus, II. 425-450, and more briefly by Markham, Columbus, pp. 259-207. This was the first settlement projected on the American Continent. The hostility of the Indians culminating in this attack rendered the execution of the project impracticable. In the manuscript copy of Las Casas’s Historia de las Indias Las Casas noted on the margin of the passage containing the account of this incident, “This was the first settlement that the Spaniards made on the mainland, although in a short time it came to naught.” See Thacher, Columbus, II. 608.