Four vessels, ranging in burden from fifty to seventy tons, were then made ready, the _Capitana_, the _Santiago de Polos_, the _Gallego_, and the _Vizcaino_, commanded respectively by Diego Tristan, Francisco de Porras, Pedro de Terreros, and Bartolomé de Fresco, and embarked at Cádiz the 9th of May, 1502. With the expedition sailed Diego de Porras as chief clerk and notary, and Juan Sanchez as chief pilot; one hundred and forty men and boys constituted the company. The admiral was accompanied by his brother Bartolomé, the adelantado,[IV-1] and by his son Fernando,[IV-2] then thirteen years of age. The sail across the ocean was prosperous, with favorable winds and nothing to augur the approaching misfortunes until the ships arrived off Santo Domingo on the 29th of June. [Sidenote: FATE OF BOBADILLA.] During the past two years matters had not improved at Española. It seems that others could govern badly as well as the admiral. Indeed, the kings of Spain, most of them meaning well by their New World subjects, were too often unfortunate in their choice of agents. Until recently Bobadilla had held sway, the sovereigns being apparently in no haste to displace him; from which course it was evident either that they had not been properly informed of his conduct, or they approved of it. Perhaps it was true that a knave was better for the place than an honest man. A successor, however, had at length arrived in the person of Nicolás de Ovando, and the superb fleet which had brought him, and was to carry back the displaced governor to Spain, now rode at anchor in the harbor. In following that contriving policy which others beside princes sometimes regard as necessary when straightforwardness were better, it had been deemed expedient that Columbus should not on this expedition touch at Española, lest his presence engender fresh broils on the island. And the admiral appeared to entertain no intention of breaking the royal commands, until he found, on reaching the Indies, that one of his vessels was unfit for service; or else he pretended that it was so in order to look in on his late government. But whether in actual or feigned distress, when the admiral sent the 29th of June to ask of Ovando permission to exchange a leaky caravel, or at least to shelter the vessels from an impending storm, his messenger Terreros returned with a refusal.