I think I should now do well to say somewhat of the events which occurred to the admiral and to his family during the year that they were left on the island. A few days after my departure, the Indians became refractory, and refused to bring food, as they had hitherto done. The admiral, therefore, caused all the caciques to be summoned, and expressed to them his surprise that they should not send food as they were wont to do, knowing, as they did, and as he had already told them, that he had come there by the command of God. He said that he perceived that God was angry with them, and that he would that very night give tokens of his displeasure by signs that he would cause to appear in the heavens; and as, on that night, there was to be an almost total eclipse of the moon, he told them that God caused that appearance, to signify his anger against them for not bringing the food. The Indians, believing him, were very frightened, and promised that they would always bring him food in future; and so, in fact, they did, until the arrival of the ship which I had sent loaded with provisions. The admiral, and those who were with him, felt no small joy at the arrival of this ship. And his lordship afterwards informed me in Spain, that in no part of his life did he ever experience so joyful a day; for he had never hoped to have left that place alive. And in that same ship he set sail, and went to San Domingo, and thence to Spain. IX.――APPEAL OF COLUMBUS IN HIS OLD AGE. [To the King and Queen of Spain. Taken from his letter (1503) describing his fourth voyage.] SUCH is my fate, that the twenty years of service through which I have passed with so much toil and danger have profited me nothing, and at this very day I do not possess a roof in Spain that I can call my own. If I wish to eat or sleep, I have nowhere to go but to the inn or tavern, and most times lack wherewith to pay the bill. Another anxiety wrung my very heart-strings, which was the thought of my son Diego, whom I had left an orphan in Spain, and stripped of the honor and property which were due to him on my account, although I had looked upon it as a certainty that your Majesties, as just and grateful princes, would restore it to him in all respects with increase....