The voyage, Columbus's last, failed to find a western maritime route to the Far East, returned relatively little profit, and resulted in the loss of many crew men, all the fleet's ships, and a year-long marooning in Jamaica.

'[1] The 1497 discovery of an eastern maritime passage to 'the opulent East,' by Vasco de Gama, had steeled Columbus's determination to find a shorter, more direct western route.

[4] Though his commission forbade landing at Hispaniola at this stage of the voyage, Columbus anchored just off the Ozama River by the end of June, as he wished to request permission to enter the port of Santo Domingo so as to shelter therein from a hurricane he feared was brewing.

[7] Noting their goods were 'all of a quality superior to what they had seen before,' the Spaniards forced a trade, buying ceramics, dyed cotton textiles, flint-edged swords, and copper hatchets with 'the usual baubles.

[8][n 2] After impressing the canoe's elderly skipper, the fleet anchored in the lee of Cape Honduras, 'where they made the first landing on the mainland of North America.

[7] On 16 September, two days after having turned south at Cape Gracias a Dios, the fleet anchored just off a large estuary, 'probably [that of] the Rio Grande,' with surf so strong it swamped one of the boats, leading to the death by drowning of two crewmates.

[7] On 5 October, the fleet entered Almirante Bay, where Columbus 'found the first sign of fine gold, which an [Amerindian man] wore like a large medal on his breast.

[7] Columbus took Ciguare to mean Ciamba, but nonetheless seems to have given up his search for a maritime passage to the East, having had no luck so far, and instead focussed on trading for gold, fine specimens of which the new-found peoples had.

[7] The ships put out on 17 October, due southeast where they sighted Veragua, a local village which Amerindian guides noted for its gold production.

[12] After scuttling the newly-unseaworthy Vizcaíno at Porto Bello, the now-halved fleet reached a headland, probably Punta de Mosquito, and set off northwards on 1 May.

That July, he enlisted his captains Méndez and Fieschi, twelve crew mates, and twenty Taino rowers to attempt the daring crossing of the Jamaica Channel aboard dugout canoes in two parties.

[13] Meanwhile, back in Jamaica, the stranded crew's discontent festered until 2 January 1504, when Francisco and Diego de Porras led a mutiny of 48 men.

[14] Over the next month, they would attempt the Channel crossing twice, but fail both times, and so return to St Ann's Bay by the end of March, where, after a skirmish, the Porras brothers would be imprisoned, and their mutineers pardoned.

[16] First-hand accounts of the voyage by Columbus, his son Ferdinand, the Porras brothers, Pedro de Ledesma, and Diego Méndez remain extant.