Leaving orders for finishing the fortifications of fort St Thomas, the admiral set out on his return for Isabella on Friday the 21st of March. Near the Green River he met the escort of mules with provisions, which he sent on to the fort[11]; and was constrained to remain some time at the green river on account of the excessive rains which then fell. While afterwards endeavouring to find the fords of the Rio Verde and Rio del Oro, which is larger than the Ebro, he had to remain for several days among the towns of the Indians, subsisting his whole party on the Indian bread and garlick, which the natives parted with for a small price. On Sunday the 29th of March he returned to Isabella, where melons were already grown and fit for eating, although the seed had only been put into the ground two months before. Cucumbers came up in twenty days. A wild vine of the country having been pruned, had produced large and excellent grapes. On the 30th of March a peasant gathered some ears of wheat which had only been sown in the latter end of January. There were vetches likewise, but much larger than the seed they had brought from Spain; these had sprung up in three days after they were sown, and the produce was fit to eat after twenty-five days. The stones of fruit set in the ground sprouted in seven days. Vine branches shot out in the same time, and in twenty-five days they gathered green grapes. Sugar canes budded in seven days. All this wonderful rapidity of vegetation proceeded from the temperature of the climate, which was not unlike that of the south of Spain, being rather cool than hot at the present season of the year. The waters likewise were cold, pure, and wholesome; so that upon the whole the admiral was well satisfied with the soil and air, and with the people of the country.