beaten down, and the whole presented the appearance of having been sacked, burnt, and destroyed. Here and there broken chests, spoiled provisions, and the ragged remains of European garments. Not an Indian approached them. They caught sight of two or three lurking at a distance among the trees and apparently watching them, but they vanished into the woods on finding themselves observed. Meeting no one to explain the melancholy scene before them, they returned with dejected hearts to the ships and related to the Admiral what they had seen.

Columbus was greatly troubled in mind at this intelligence, and the fleet having now anchored in the harbor, he went himself to shore on the following morning. Repairing to the ruins of the fortress he found everything as it had been described, and searched in vain for the remains of dead bodies. No traces of the garrison were to be seen, but broken utensils and torn vestments were scattered here and there among the grass. There were many surmises and conjectures. If the fortress had been sacked some of the garrison might yet survive, and might either have fled from the neighborhood or been carried into captivity. Cannon and arquebuses were discharged, in hopes if any of the survivors were

hid among rocks and thickets, they might hear them and come forth; but no one made his appearance. A mournful and lifeless silence reigned over the place. The suspicion of treachery on the part of Guacanagari was again revived, but Columbus was unwilling to indulge it. On looking further, the village of that cacique was found a mere heap of burnt ruins, which showed that he had been involved in the disaster of the garrison.

Columbus had left orders with Arana and the officers to bury all the treasure they might procure, or in case of sudden danger to throw it into the well of the fortress. He ordered excavations to be made therefore among the ruins, and the well to be cleared out. While this search was making he proceeded with the boats to explore the neighborhood, partly in hopes of gaining intelligence of any scattered survivors of the garrison, and partly to look out for a better situation for a fortress. After proceeding about a league he came to a hamlet, the inhabitants of which had fled, taking whatever they could with them and hiding the rest in the grass. In the houses were European articles which evidently had not. been procured by barter, such as stockings, pieces of cloth, and an anchor of the caravel which had been wrecked, and a beautiful

Moorish robe, folded in the form in which it had been brought from Spain.*

Having passed some time contemplating these scattered documents of a disastrous story Columbus returned to the ruins of the fortress. The excavations and search in the well had proved fruitless; no treasure was to be found. Not far from the fort, however, they had discovered the bodies of eleven men buried in different places, and which were known by their clothing to be Europeans. They had evidently been for some time in the ground, the grass having grown upon their graves.

In the course of the day a number of Indians made their appearance, hovering timidly at a distance. Their apprehensions were gradually dispelled until they became perfectly communicative. Some of them could speak a few words of Spanish, and knew the names of all the men who had remained with Arana. By this means, and by the aid of the interpreter, the story of the garrison was in some measure ascertained.

It is curious to note this first footprint of civilization in the New World. Those whom Columbus had left behind, says Oviedo, with the exception of the commander Don Diego

* Letter of Dr. Chanca. Cura de los Palacios, cap.

120.

Arana and one or two others, were but little calculated to follow the precepts of so prudent a person, or to discharge the critical duties. enjoined upon them. They were principally men of the lowest order, or mariners who knew not how to conduct themselves with restraint or sobriety on shore. No sooner had the Admiral departed, than all his counsels and commands died away from their minds. Though a mere handful of men surrounded by savage tribes, and dependent upon their own prudence and good conduct, and upon the good-will of the natives, for their very existence, yet they soon began to indulge in the most wanton abuses. Some were prompted by rapacious avarice, and sought to possess themselves, by all kinds of wrongful means, of the golden ornaments and other valuable property of the natives. Others were grossly sensual, and not content with two or three wives allotted to each by Guacanagari, seduced the wives and daughters of the Indians.

Fierce brawls ensued among them about their ill-gotten spoils and the favors of the Indian women, and the natives beheld with astonishment the beings whom they had worshipped, as descended from the skies, abandoned to the grossest of earthly passions, and * Oviedo, Hist. Ind., lib. ii., cap. 12.

raging against each other with worse than brutal ferocity.

Still these dissensions might not have been very dangerous, had they observed one of the injunctions of Columbus and kept together in the fortress, maintaining military vigilance ; but all precaution of the kind was soon forgotten. In vain did Don Diego de Arana interpose his authority; in vain did every inducement present itself which could bind man and man together in a foreign land. All order, all subordination, all unanimity was at an end. Many abandoned the fortress, and lived carelessly and at random about the neighborhood; every one was for himself, or associated with some little knot of confederates to injure and despoil the rest. Thus factions broke out among them, until ambition arose to complete the destruction of their mimic empire. Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo de Escobedo, whom Columbus had left as lieutenants to the commander, to succeed to him in case of accident, took advantage of these disorders and aspired to an equal share in the authority, if not to the supreme control.* Violent affrays succeeded, in which a Spaniard named Jacomo was killed. Having failed in their object, Gutierrez and Escobedo * Oviedo, Hist. Ind., lib. ii., cap. 12.