It was certainly an anomalous position in which the great discoverer found himself, vainly knocking at the door of a possession which he had so lately given to Spain, and he not convicted, nay, scarcely accused of any crime. Columbus sent again and warned the governor of approaching bad weather. Ovando would not heed him. The gubernatorial fleet sailed; but only to face a hurricane which soon strewed the shores of Española with its fragments. Current biographies here read like a moral story. On the wrecked vessels were Bobadilla, Roldan, and other inveterate enemies of the admiral, who with a huge mass of ill-gotten treasure were buried beneath the waves. On a little caravel which survived the tempest was the good Bastidas with his property; and on another, which likewise reached Spain in safety, were four thousand _pesos de oro_ belonging to Columbus. Furthermore the admiral sheltered his vessels, and so received no injury from the storm. From all which, grave deductions were severally made—by Columbus, that the Almighty had preserved him; by his enemies, that he had employed witchcraft to save himself and property; by others, of a luckless order which providence refuses to recognize, that the admiral and adelantado were good seamen. After certain ship repairs, made without difficulty in a little port near Santo Domingo, on the 14th of July Columbus sailed westward on his explorations. [Sidenote: EARLY CARTOGRAPHY.] It must be remembered that at this time, and for several years afterward, the Spaniards did not know where they were. They supposed the earth smaller than it is, and that they were on the barbarous outposts of India,[IV-3] whose interior was civilized and wealthy; and it was the present object of the admiral to find some strait or passage between this border-land and the detached southern regions about Paria, on which he might sail to these rich inner realms, still coasting Asia south-westward. [Sidenote: GUANAJA ISLAND.]