ascertained the great force of the Indians, Don Bartholomew advised that their little army should be divided into detachments, and should attack the enemy at the same moment from several quarters: this plan was adopted. The infantry separating into different bodies, advanced suddenly from various directions, with great din of drums and trumpets, and a destructive discharge of firearms from the covert of the trees. The Indians were struck with panic, and thrown into complete confusion. An army seemed pressing upon them from every quarter; their fellow warriors were laid low by the balls of the arquebusses, which seemed to burst with thunder and lightning from the forests. While driven together and confounded by these attacks, Alonzo de Ojeda charged impetuously on their main body with his troop of cavalry, cutting his way into the centre with lance and sabre. The horses bore down the terrified Indians, while their riders dealt their blows on all sides unopposed. The bloodhounds were at the same time let loose, and rushed with sanguinary fury upon the naked savages, seizing them by the throat, dragging them to the earth, and tearing out their bowels. The Indians, unaccustomed to large and fierce quadrupeds of any kind, were struck with horror when assailed by these ferocious animals. They thought the horses equally fierce and devouring. The contest, if such it might be called, was of short duration. What resistance could a multitude of naked, unwarlike, and undisciplined savages make, with no other arms than clubs and arrows, and darts hardened in the fire, against soldiers clad in iron, wielding weapons of steel, and tremendous firearms, and aided by ferocious monsters whose very aspect struck terror to the heart of the stoutest warrior!

"The Indians fled in every direction with yells and howlings; some clambered to the top of rocks and precipices, from whence they made piteous supplications and offers of

complete submission; many were killed, many made prisoners, and the confederacy was for the time completely broken up and dispersed."

Having been forced to take the field by the confederacy of the caciques, Columbus now asserted the right of a conqueror. Anxious to make returns to Spain for the purpose of indemnifying the sovereigns for their expenses, and meeting public expectation, he determined to raise a large revenue from the island by imposing on the subjected provinces heavy tributes. This imposed on the natives a constant, never ending task. They were now obliged to grope, day by day, along the borders of the rivers sifting the sands for the grains of gold which every day grew more scanty; or to labour in their fields, beneath the fervour of a tropical sun, to raise food for their taskmasters. A desperate resolution was now taken by them. They agreed among themselves not to cultivate articles of food, and to destroy those already growing; hoping that thus, by producing a famine, they might starve the strangers from the island. This measure did indeed produce much distress among the Spaniards, but the most disastrous effects fell upon the natives themselves, The Spaniards pursued them. They took refuge in the most sterile and dreary heights; flying from one wild retreat to another, the women with their children in their arms, or at their backs; and all suffering dreadfully from fatigue and hunger, and harassed by perpetual alarms. Many thousands perished through famine, fatigue, terror, and the various maladies produced by their sufferings.

The survivors returned in despair to their habitations and submitted to the yoke.*

"Before passing on to other events, it may be proper here to notice the fate of Guacanagari, as he makes no further appearance in the course of this history. His friendship for the Spaniards had severed him from his countrymen, but it did not exonerate him from the general woes of the island. His territories, like those of the other caciques, were subjected to a tribute, which his people, with the common repugnance to labour, found it difficult to pay. Columbus, who knew his worth, and could have protected him, was long absent, either in the interior of the island, or detained in Europe by his own wrongs. In the interval, the Spaniards forgot the hospitality and services of Guacanagari, and his tribute was harshly exacted. He found himself overwhelmed with opprobrium from his countrymen at large, and assailed by the clamours and lamentations of his suffering subjects. The strangers whom he had succoured in distress, and taken as it were to the bosom of his native island, had become its tyrants and oppressors. Care, and toil, and poverty, and strong-handed violence, had spread their curses over the land, and he felt as if he had invoked them on his race. Unable to bear the hostilities of his fellow caciques, the woes of his subjects, and the extortions of his ungrateful allies, he took refuge at last in the mountains, where he died obscurely and in misery."*

* Irving's Columbus, vol. 1, p. 319 to 323. The extract which follows is from p. 323, 4. † Charlevoix, Hist. St. Doming. Lib. 2.

CHAPTER VII.

Of the arrival at Hispaniola of Juan Aguado as commissioner in 1495; the return of Columbus and Aguado to Spain in 1496; the favourable reception of Columbus by the sovereigns; and their promise to him of another armament.

The prejudiced representations of Margarite and father Boyle, supported by the testimony of others who returned with them to Spain, were not without effect. Towards the end of August 1495, Juan Aguado sailed from Spain as commissioner, with four caravels freighted with supplies for the colony. Diego Columbus returned in this squadron to Hispaniola, and arrived at Isabella in October, while the admiral was absent occupied in re-establishing tranquillity. The news of the arrival and arrogant conduct of Aguado reached Columbus in the interior of the island; he immediately hastened to Isabella and ordered that Aguado's letter of credence should be proclaimed by sound of trumpet, in presence of the populace. Aguado, after collecting information, as he thought, sufficient to ensure the ruin of the admiral and his brothers, prepared to return to Spain. Columbus resolved to do the same. He felt that it was time to appear at court and dispel the cloud of calumny that was gathering against him. When the ships were ready to depart, a terrible storm swept the island, destroying the four caravels of Aguado, with

two others which were in the harbour. The only vessel which remained was the Niña, and that in a very shattered condition. Columbus gave orders to have her immediately repaired, and another caravel constructed out of the wrecks of those destroyed. While waiting till they should be ready, he was cheered by tidings of rich mines in the interior. After enquiry into the matter, he gave orders that a fortress should be erected on the banks of the Hayna, in the vicinity of the mines, and that they should be diligently worked.*

The new caravel, the Santa Cruz, being finished, and the Niña repaired, Columbus made every arrangement for immediate departure. He appointed his brother Bartholomew to the command of the island, with the title already given him of Adelantado; in case of his death, he was to be succeeded by his brother Diego. On the 10th of March 1496, the two caravels set sail for Spain, Columbus being in one and Aguado in the other. Those who wished to visit their wives and relations in Spain, and others who could be spared from the island, returned in the caravels, which were crowded with two hundred and twenty-five passengers. There were also thirty Indians on board, among whom were the cacique Caonabo, one of his brothers and a nephew. Columbus had not then sufficient experience to make him work northward, so as to fall in with the tract of westerly winds; he took an easterly course, and in consequence had a tedious struggle against the trade winds and calms which prevail between the tropics.

* Irving's Columbus, vol. 1, p. 324 to 336.