There were no less than thirty ships and twenty-five hundred persons comprising the expedition. Of the company were Alonso Maldonado, newly appointed _alcalde mayor_,[V-1] and twelve Franciscans, with a prelate, Antonio de Espinal. Las Casas was present; and Hernan Cortés would have been there but for an illness which prevented him. There were seventy-three respectable married women, who had come with their husbands and children, and who were to salt society at their several points of distribution. It was evident as the new governor entered his capital, elegantly attired, with a body-guard of sixty-two foot-soldiers and ten horsemen, and a large and brilliant retinue, that the colonization of the New World had now been assumed in earnest by the sovereigns of Spain. Nor was Ovando disposed to be dilatory in his duty. He at once announced the _residencia_[V-2] of Bobadilla, and put Roldan, _ci-devant_ rebel, and later chief judge, under arrest. He built in Española several towns to which arms and other privileges were given, founded a hospital, removed Santo Domingo to a more healthful site on the other side of the river, and established a colony at Puerto de Plata, on the north side of Española, near Isabela. Distant eight leagues from Santo Domingo were the mines where the twenty-five hundred thought immediately to enrich themselves. For several days after landing the road was alive with eager gold hunters drawn from all classes of the community; cavalier, _hidalgo_,[V-3] and laborer, priest and artisan, honest men and villains, whose cupidity had been fired by the display of precious metal lately gathered, and who were now hurrying forward with hard breath and anxious eyes under their bundle of necessities. But there was no happy fortune in store for these new-comers. The story then new has been oft repeated since: expecting to fill their sacks quickly and with ease, and finding that a very little gold was to be obtained only by very great labor, they were soon on their way back to the city, where many of them fell into poverty, half of them dying of fever. Poor fools! they did not know; their countrymen, those that were left from former attempts, did not tell them, though Roldan's men, Bobadilla's men knew well enough, and in truth the remnant of Ovando's men were not slow to learn, that the wise man, the wise and villainous man from Spain, did not work or die for gold, or for anything else, when there were savages that might be pricked to it by the sword. [Sidenote: GOVERNMENT OF THE NATIVES.]