From Haiti, Columbus set sail for Spain, and he reached the port of Palos on the fifteenth of March, 1493. Now indeed, his good fortune was at its height. He was received with almost royal honors. He was bidden to sit in the presence of the king and queen--an unheard-of honor in that formal court--while he described his voyage and displayed the plants and birds and natives he had brought back. Nothing, so thought he and his sovereigns, remained but to take possession of the spices, gems, and gold described by Marco Polo. Another expedition was planned. Instead of having to seek adventures and criminals to fit out a crew, he had but to choose among the gentlemen and nobles who contended for the privilege of accompanying him. A fleet of seventeen ships and fifteen hundred men was fitted out. With this Columbus sailed away from Cadiz, September 25, 1493. The good fortune for which he had had to wait so many weary years did not long abide with him, and ere this voyage was over it had taken its flight. The colony established on Haiti had by cruelty provoked the Indians and had been destroyed. On this second voyage new islands were discovered,--Jamaica, Porto Rico, and others,--a second colony was established, and one exploring expedition after another was sent out in search of gold, of which small quantities were found. The turbulent, disappointed adventurers quarreled with Columbus, and his enemies at home were active against him. He landed at Cadiz, June 11, 1496, and laid his case before his sovereigns. He was restored to royal favor, but it was two years before he could get another expedition fitted out, and then, May 30, 1498, only six vessels set sail. This time Columbus followed a southernly course and reached the mainland of South America, which was visited about this time by Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine, who wrote an account of his voyage. Later, a German geographer spoke of it as “Americi terra,” land discovered by Americus, and so the land came to be called America. Columbus at first thought that he had reached another island; afterwards he decided that this was the coast of Asia and that the Orinoco was a river in the Garden of Eden. Making his way to the Indies, Columbus found the colony at Santo Domingo in disorder but unwilling to submit to his authority. Each side appealed to Spain, and Bobadilla was sent out to investigate and settle the matter. He listened to but one side--that against Columbus. With harshness uncalled-for, had he been guilty of the charges brought against him, Columbus was sent to Spain, a prisoner, and in chains. The officers of the ship would have removed his fetters, but he proudly forbade, saying that they had been put upon him by the agent of the king and queen and so by their authority. “I will wear them until my sovereigns order them to be taken off, and I will preserve them afterwards as relics and memorials of the reward of my services,” he said.