The time for rest and recovery had not yet come for poor Columbus. Unforeseen blows, new difficulties, new anxieties, new labors and dangers, so great that they would have tested the endurance of a well man and exhausted any man not worn down with trouble, were awaiting him. His noble brother, Bartolomeo, during his absence had conducted an expedition to a favorable and not far distant region and had begun the erection of a new city, which he named San Domingo in honor of his father, Domenico. This city, which still flourishes, has been for a long time one of the most important in the West Indies and the whole island has gradually come to take its name. While laying out the new city, Bartolomeo, with a part of his men, advanced into parts of the island where Columbus had never been, leaving behind him the captain-general Roldan in command of those remaining. This evil-disposed man betrayed the confidence reposed in him and proved himself guilty of blackest ingratitude. Roldan had long waited an opportunity to overthrow the Columbus family and make himself ruler of the island. The departure of Bartolomeo and the absence of his great brother seemed to offer just that opportunity. He improved it to the utmost of his ability, sought to turn the Spaniards left behind against Bartolomeo and his younger brother, Diego, and succeeded so well that most of them came over to his side. They chose him for their leader, took up arms against the _adelantado_, his plan being to seize all the supplies and take the fort at San Domingo by storm. This plan, however, was fortunately thwarted by the vigilance of some of the officers who had been left to protect the fort, and the leaders were forced to retreat to another part of the island. There they strove to win the natives to their side and so far succeeded that in a short time the whole island was in the throes of revolution. Such was the desperate condition of the spot where Columbus had planned to rest! Still further to aggravate his troubles, he learned that the three vessels sent by him with supplies from the Canaries had not arrived. It seemed certain to him that they had been lost by some disaster or another upon the ocean. For a time everything seemed as good as hopeless for Columbus. Storms and ocean currents had driven these vessels out of their prescribed course and, after being tossed about in unknown regions of the ocean, they at last reached Hispaniola, but upon that coast where Roldan and his followers had settled. The cunning Roldan concealed his seditious undertaking from the captains of the three vessels and induced them to send a part of their crews on shore, whom he agreed to conduct to San Domingo. These men, the offscourings of the Spanish prisons, gladly enlisted under his banner, as it would give them a chance to rob and plunder. This was the first unpleasant result of the course which Columbus had inconsiderately taken.