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savages, and rushing into the waves were drowned; the rest were massacred. Guacanagari and his subjects fought faithfully in defence of their guests, but not being of a warlike character, were easily routed. The Cacique was wounded by the hand of Caonabo, and his village was burnt to the ground.*

Such was the history of the first European establishment in the New World. It presents in a diminutive compass an epitome of the gross vices which degrade civilization, and the grand political errors which sometimes subvert the mightiest empires. All law and order being relaxed by corruption and licentiousness, public good was sacrificed to private interest and passion, the community was convulsed by divers factions and dissensions, until the whole was shaken asunder by two aspiring demagogues, ambitious of the command of a petty fortress in a wilderness and the supreme control of eight-and-thirty men.

* Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i., lib. ii., cap. 9. Letter of Dr. Chanca, Peter Martyr, decad. i., lib. ii. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 49. Cura de los Palacios, cap. 120, MS. Muñoz, Hist. N. Mundo, lib. iv.

Chapter v.

TRANSACTIONS WITH THE NATIVES-SUSPICIOUS CON

TH

DUCT OF GUACANAGARI.

[1493.]

HE tragical story of the fortress, as gathered from the Indians at the harbor, received confirmation from another

quarter. One of the captains, Melchor Maldonado, coasting to the east with his caravel in search of some more favorable situation for a settlement, was boarded by a canoe in which were two Indians. One of them was the brother of Guacanagari, who entreated him, in the name of the Cacique, to visit him at the village where he lay ill of his wound. Maldonado immediately went on shore with two or three of his companions. They found Guacanagari confined by lameness to his hammock, surrounded by seven of his wives. The Cacique expressed great regret at not being able to visit the Admiral. He related various particulars

concerning the disasters of the garrison, and the part which he and his subjects had taken in its defence, showing his wounded leg bound. up. His story agreed with that already related. After treating the Spaniards with his accustomed hospitality, he presented to each of them at parting a golden ornament.

On the following morning Columbus repaired in person to visit the Cacique. To impress him with an idea of his present power and importance, he appeared with a numerous train of officers, all richly dressed or in glittering armor. They found Guacanagari reclining in a hammock of cotton net. He exhibited great emotion on beholding the Admiral, and immediately adverted to the death of the Spaniards. As he related the disasters of the garrison he shed many tears, but dwelt particularly on the part he had taken in the defence of his guests, pointing out several of his subjects present who had received wounds in the battle. It was evident from the scars that the wounds had been received from Indian weapons.

Columbus was readily satisfied of the good faith of Guacanagari. When he reflected on the many proofs of an open and generous nature, which he had given at the time of his shipwreck, he could not believe him capable of so dark an act of perfidy. An exchange of

VOL. II.-6

presents now took place. The Cacique gave him eight hundred beads of a certain stone called ciba, which they considered highly precious, and one hundred of gold, a golden coronet, and three small calabashes filled with gold dust, and thought himself outdone in munificence when presented with a number of glass beads, hawks'-bells, knives, pins, needles, small mirrors, and ornaments of copper, which metal he seemed to prefer to gold.*

Guacanagari's leg had been violently bruised by a stone. At the request of Columbus he permitted it to be examined by a surgeon who was present. On removing the bandage no signs of a wound were to be seen, although he shrank with pain whenever the limb was handled.† As some time had elapsed since the battle, the external bruise might have disappeared, while a tenderness remained in the part. Several present, however, who had not been in the first voyage, and had witnessed nothing of the generous conduct of the Cacique, looked upon his lameness as feigned, and the whole story of the battle a fabrication, to conceal his real perfidy. Father Boyle especially, who was of a vindictive spirit, advised the Admiral to make an immediate example of the

* Letter of Dr. Chanca. Navarrete, Colec., tom. i. † Letter of Dr. Chanca. Cura de los Palacios, cap. 120.

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