killed, was yet bleeding; some parts of his body were roasting before the fire, others boiling with the flesh of geese and parrots.*

Several of the natives, in the course of the day, had been seen on the shore gazing with wonder at the ships, but when the boats approached they fled to the woods and mountains. Several women came off to the Spaniards for refuge, being captives from other islands. Columbus ordered that they should be decorated with hawks'-bells and strings of beads and bugles and sent on shore, in hopes of enticing off some of the men. They soon returned to the boats stripped of their ornaments, and imploring to be taken on board the ships. The Admiral learnt from them that most of the men of the island were absent, the king having sailed some time before with ten canoes and three hundred warriors on a cruise in quest of prisoners and booty. When the men went forth on these expeditions the women remained to defend their shores from invasion. They were expert archers, partaking of the warrior spirit of their husbands, and almost equalling them in force and intrepidity.†

The continued absence of the wanderers

* P. Martyr, Letter 147, to Pomponius Lætus. Idem., decad. i., lib. ii.

† Idem., decad. iii., lib. ix.

perplexed Columbus extremely. He was impatient to arrive at Hispaniola, but unwilling to sail while there was a possibility of their being alive and being recovered. In this emergency Alonso de Ojeda, the same young cavalier whose exploit on the tower of the cathedral at Seville has been mentioned, volunteered to scour the island with forty men in quest of them. He departed accordingly, and during his absence the ships took in wood and water, and part of the crews were permitted to land, wash their clothes, and recreate themselves.

Ojeda and his followers pushed far into the interior, firing off arquebuses and sounding trumpets in the valleys and from the summits of cliffs and precipices, but were only answered by their own echoes. The tropical luxuriance and density of the forests rendered them almost impenetrable; and it was necessary to wade a great many rivers, or probably the windings and doublings of the same stream. The island appeared to be naturally fertile in the extreme. The forests abounded with aromatic trees and shrubs, among which Ojeda fancied he perceived the odor of precious gums and spices. There was honey in hollow trees and in the clefts of rocks; abundance of fruit also; for, according to Peter Martyr, the Caribs, in their

predatory cruisings, were accustomed to bring home the seeds and roots of all kinds of plants from the distant islands and countries which they overran.

Ojeda returned without any tidings of the stragglers. Several days had now elapsed since their disappearance. They were given up for lost, and the fleet was about sailing when to the universal joy a signal was made by them from the shore. When they came on board their haggard and exhausted looks bespoke what they had suffered. For several days they had been perplexed in trackless forests so dense as almost to exclude the light of day. They had clambered rocks, waded rivers, and struggled through briers and thickets. Some who were experienced seamen climbed the trees, to get a sight of the stars, by which to govern their course; but the spreading branches and thick foliage shut out all view of the heavens. They were harassed with the fear that the Admiral, thinking them dead, might set sail and leave them in this wilderness, cut off forever from their homes and the abodes of civilized man. At length when almost reduced to despair, they had arrived at the sea-shore, and following it for some time, beheld to their great joy the fleet riding quietly at anchor. They brought with

them several Indian women and boys, but in all their wanderings they had not met with any man, the greater part of the warriors, as has been said, being fortunately absent on an expedition.

Notwithstanding the hardships they had endured and his joy at their return, Columbus put the captain under arrest, and stopped part of the rations of the men, for having strayed away without permission; for in a service of such a critical nature it was necessary to punish every breach of discipline.*

46.

* Dr. Chanca's Letter. Hist. del Almirante, cap.

Chapter 111.

CRUISE AMONG THE CARIBBEE ISLANDS.

W

[1493.]

EIGHING anchor on the 10th of November, Columbus steered to the northwest, along this beautiful archipelago, giving names to the islands as they rose in view; such as Montserrat, Santa Maria la Redonda, Santa Maria la Antigua, and San Martin. Various other islands, lofty and well wooded, appeared to the north, southwest, and southeast; but he forebore to visit them. The weather proving boisterous, he anchored on the 14th at an island called Ayay by the Indians, but to which he gave the name of Santa Cruz. A boat well manned was sent on shore to get water and procure information. They found a village deserted by the men, but secured a few women and boys, most of them captives from other islands. They soon had an instance of Carib