At last the mysterious darkness covered the face of the sky and of the world, when they knew that they had a right to expect the glory of the full moon.
There were then no bounds to their terror.

They, seized on all the provisions that they had, they rushed to the ships, they threw themselves at the feet of Columbus and begged him to intercede with his God, to withhold the calamity which he had threatened.

Columbus would not receive them; he shut himself up in his cabin and remained there while the eclipse increased, hearing from within, as the narrator says, the howls and prayers of the savages.
It was not until he knew the eclipse was about to diminish, that he condescended to come forth, and told them that he had interceded with God, who would pardon them if they would fulfil their promises.

In token of pardon, the darkness would be withdrawn from the moon.
The Indians saw the fulfilment of the promise, as they had seen the fulfilment of the threat.

The moon reappeared in its brilliancy.