He turned his ships about and headed for Hayti where he hoped he could get Governor Ovando to give him better ships so that he could try it all over again.
Here, you see, was still another disappointing defeat for Columbus.

For after he had been on the American coast for almost a year; after he had come so near to what he felt to be the long-looked-for path to the Indies; after most wonderful adventures on sea and land, he turned his back on it all, without really having accomplished what he set out to do and, as I have told you, steered for Hayti.
But it was not at all easy to get to Hayti in those leaky ships of his.
In fact it was not possible to get there with them at all; for on the twenty-third of June, 1503, when he had reached the island of Jamaica he felt that his ships would not hold out any longer.

They were full of worm-holes; they were leaking badly; they were strained and battered from the storms.

He determined, therefore, to find a good harbor somewhere on the island of Jamaica and go in there for repairs.

But he could not find a good one; his ships grew worse and worse; every day's delay was dangerous; and for fear the ships would sink and carry the crews to the bottom of the sea, Columbus decided to run them ashore anyhow.