left Cádiz on 9 May 1502, with his flagship,
Capitana, as well as the
Gallega,
Vizcaína, and
Santiago de Palos.
[159] They first sailed to
Arzila on the Moroccan coast to rescue the Portuguese soldiers who he heard were under siege by the Moors.
[160]
After using the trade winds to cross the Atlantic in a brisk twenty days, on 15 June, they landed at Carbet on the island of
Martinique (Martinica).
[160] Columbus anticipated that a
hurricane was brewing and had a ship that needed to be replaced, so he headed to Hispaniola, despite being forbidden to land there. He arrived at Santo Domingo on June 29, but was denied port, and the new governor refused to listen to his warning of a storm. While Columbus's ships sheltered at the mouth of the
Haina River, Governor Bobadilla departed, with Roldán and Columbus's gold aboard his ship, accompanied by a convoy of 30 other vessels. Columbus's personal gold and other belongings were put on the fragile
Aguya, considered the fleet's least seaworthy vessel. The onset of a hurricane drove some ships ashore, with some sinking in the harbor of Santo Domingo; Bobadilla's ship is thought to have reached the eastern end of Hispaniola before sinking. About 20 other vessels sank in the Atlantic, with a total of some 500 people drowning. Three damaged ships made it back to Santo Domingo; one of these had Juan de la Cosa and
Rodrigo de Bastidas on board. Only the
Aguya made it to Spain, causing some of Columbus's enemies to accuse him of conjuring the storm.
[