Agueybanà. She had overheard enough of the war-council of her brother and his warriors to learn that Sotomayor was in danger. The life of her lover was more precious in her eyes than the safety of her brother and her tribe; hastening therefore to him, she told him all that she knew or feared, and warned him to be upon his guard. Sotomayor appears to have been of the most easy and incautious nature, void of all evil and deceit himself and slow to suspect anything of the kind in others. He considered the apprehension of the princess as dictated by her fond anxiety, and neglected to profit by her warning.

He received however, about the same time, information from a different quarter tending to the same point. A Spaniard versed in the language and customs of the natives, had observed a number gathering one evening, painted and decorated as if for battle. Suspecting some lurking mischief he stripped and painted himself in their manner, and, favored by the obscurity of the night, succeeded in mingling among them undiscovered. They were assembled round a fire, performing one of their mystic war-dances, to the chant of an areyto or legendary ballad. The strophes and responses treated of revenge and slaughter, and repeatedly mentioned the death of Sotomayor.

The Spaniard withdrew unperceived and hastened to apprise Don Christoval of his danger. The latter still made light of these repeated warnings; revolving them however in his mind in the stillness of the night, he began to feel some uneasiness, and determined to repair in the morning to Juan Ponce de Leon in his stronghold at Caparra. With his fated heedlessness or temerity, however, he applied to Agueybanà for Indians to carry his baggage, and departed slightly armed and accompanied by but three Spaniards, although he had to pass through close and lonely forests where he would be at the mercy of any treacherous or lurking foe.

The cacique watched the departure of his intended victim and set out very shortly afterwards, dogging his steps at a distance through the forest accompanied by a few chosen warriors. Agueybanà and his party had not proceeded far when they met a Spaniard named Juan Gonzalez, who spoke the Indian language. They immediately assailed and wounded him in several places. He threw himself at the feet of the cacique, imploring his life in the most abject terms. The chief spared him for the moment, being eager to make sure of Don Christoval. He overtook that incautious cavalier in the very heart of the woodland, and

stealing silently upon him, burst forth suddenly with his warriors from the covert of the thickets, giving the fatal war-whoop. Before Sotomayor could put himself upon his guard, a blow from the war-club of the cacique felled him to the earth, when he was quickly despatched by repeated blows. The three Spaniards who accompanied him shared his fate, being assailed, not merely by the warriors who had come in pursuit of them, but by their own Indian guides.

When Agueybanà had glutted his vengeance on this unfortunate cavalier he returned in quest of Juan Gonzalez. The latter, however, had recovered sufficiently from his wounds to leave the place where he had been assailed, and dreading the return of the savages had climbed into a tree and concealed himself among the branches. From thence with trembling anxiety he watched his pursuers as they searched all the surrounding forest for him. Fortunately, they did not think of looking up into the trees, but after beating the bushes for some time gave up the search. Though he saw them depart he did not venture from his concealment until the night had closed; he then descended from the tree and made the best of his way to the residence of certain Spaniards, where his wounds were dressed. When this

was done he waited not to take repose, but repaired by a circuitous route to Caparra, and informed Juan Ponce de Leon of the danger he supposed to be still pending over Sotomayor, for he knew not that the enemy had accomplished his death. Juan Ponce immediately sent out forty men to his relief. They came to the scene of massacre, where they found the body of the unfortunate cavalier, partly buried, but with the feet out of the earth.

In the meantime the savages had accomplished the destruction of the village of Sotomayor. They approached it unperceived through the surrounding forest, and, entering it in the dead of the night, set fire to the strawthatched houses, and attacked the Spaniards as they endeavored to escape from the flames.

Several were slain at the onset, but a brave Spaniard named Diego de Salazar, rallied his countrymen, inspirited them to beat off the enemy, and succeeded in conducting the greater part of them, though sorely mangled and harassed, to the stronghold of the Governor of Caparra. Scarcely had these fugitives gained the fortress when others came hurrying in from all quarters, bringing similar tales of conflagration and massacre. For once a general insurrection, so often planned in savage life. against the domination of the white men,

was crowned with success. All the villages founded by the Spaniards had been surprised, about a hundred of their inhabitants destroyed, and the survivors driven to take refuge in a beleaguered fortress.

Chapter v.

WAR OF JUAN PONCE WITH THE CACIQUE AGUEYΒΑΝΑ.

JUAN PONCE DE LEON might now almost be considered a governor without territories, and a general without soldiers. His villages were smoking ruins, and his whole force did not amount to a hundred men, several of whom were disabled by their wounds. He had an able and implacable foe in Agueybanà, who took the lead of all the other caciques, and even sent envoys to the Caribs of the neighboring islands, entreating them to forget all ancient animosities, and to make common cause against these strangers-the deadly enemies of the whole Indian race. In the meantime the whole of this wild island was in rebellion, and the forest around the fortress of Caparra rang with the whoops and yells of the savages, the blasts of their war-conches, and the stormy roaring of their drums.

VOL. V.-6