canoe being run down and overset, they continued to fight while in the water, gathering themselves occasionally on sunken rocks, and managing their weapons as dexterously as if they had been on firm ground. It was with the utmost difficulty they could be overpowered and taken. When brought on board the ships, the Spaniards could not but admire their untamed spirit and fierce demeanour. One of the females, from the reverence with which the rest treated her, appeared to be their queen : she was accompanied by her son, a young man strongly made, with a haughty and frowning brow, who had been wounded in the combat. One of the Indians had been transpierced by a lance, and died of the wound; and one of the Spaniards died a day or two afterwards, of a wound received from a poisoned arrow.

Pursuing his voyage, Columbus passed by a cluster of small islands, to which he gave the name of The Eleven Thousand Virgins, and arrived one evening in sight of a great island, covered with fine forests, and indented with havens. It was called by the natives Boriquen, but he named it San Juan Bautista; it is the same since known by the name of Porto Rico. After running for a whole day along its beautiful coast, and touching at a bay at the west end, he arrived, on the 22d of November, off the eastern extremity of Hayti, or Hispaniola. The greatest animation prevailed throughout the armada at the thoughts of soon arriving at the end of their voyage, while those who had accompanied Columbus in the preceding expedition looked forward to meeting with the comrades they had left behind, and to a renewal of pleasant scenes among the groves of

Hayti. Passing by the gulf of Las Fleches, where the skirmish had occurred with the natives, Columbus set on shore one of the young Indians who had been taken from the neighbourhood, and had accompanied him to Spain. He dismissed him finely apparelled and loaded with trinkets, anticipating favourable effects from the accounts he would be able to give to his countrymen of the power and munificence of the Spaniards, but he never heard any thing of him more. Only one Indian, of those who had been to Spain, remained in the fleet, a young Lucayan, native of the island of Guanahani, who had been baptized at Barcelona, and named after the admiral's brother, Diego Colon; he continued always faithful and devoted to the Spaniards.

Continuing along the coast, Columbus paused in the neighbourhood of Monte Christi, to fix upon a place for a settlement, in the neighbourhood of a stream said to abound in gold, to which, in his first voyage, he had given the name of Rio del Oro. Here, as the seamen were ranging the shore, they found the bodies of three men and a boy, one of whom had a rope of Spanish grass about his neck, and another, from having a beard, was evidently a European. The bodies were in a state of decay, but bore the marks of violence. This spectacle gave rise to many gloomy forebodings, and Columbus hastened forward to La Navidad, full of apprehensions that some disaster had befallen Diego de Arana and his companions.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Fate of the Fortress of La Navidad-Transactions at the Harbour. [1493.]

On the evening of the 27th of November, Columbus anchored opposite to the harbour of La Navidad, about a league from the land. As it was too dark to distinguish objects, he ordered two signal guns to be fired. The report echoed along the shore, but there was no gun, or light, or friendly shout in reply. Several hours passed away in the most dismal suspense; about midnight, a number of Indians came off in a canoe, and inquired for the admiral, refusing to come on board until they should see him personally. Columbus showed himself at the side of his vessel, and a light being held up, his countenance and commanding person were not to be mistaken. The Indians now entered the ship without hesitation. One of them was a cousin of the cacique Guacanagari, and the bearer of a present from him. The first inquiry of Columbus was concerning the garrison. He was informed that several of the Spaniards had died of sickness, others had fallen in a quarrel among themselves, and others had removed to a different part of the island ;-that Guacanagari had been assailed by Caonabo, the fierce cacique of the golden mountains of Cibao, who had

wounded him in combat, and burnt his village, and that he remained ill of his wound in a neighbouring hamlet.

Melancholy as were these tidings, they relieved Columbus from the painful suspicion of treachery on the part of the cacique and people in whom he had confided, and gave him hopes of finding some of the scattered garrison still alive. The Indians were well entertained, and gratified with presents; on departing they promised to return in the morning with Guacanagari. The morning, however, dawned and passed away, and the day declined, without the promised visit from the chieftain. There was a silence and an air of desertion about the whole neighbourhood. Not a canoe appeared in the harbour; not an Indian hailed them from the land; nor was there any smoke to be seen rising from among the groves. Towards the evening, a boat was sent on shore to reconnoitre. The crew hastened to the place where the fortress had been erected. They found it burnt and demolished, the palisadoes beaten down, and the ground strewed with broken chests, spoiled provisions, and the fragments of European garments. Not an Indian approached them, and if they caught a sight of any lurking among the trees, they vanished on finding themselves perceived. Meeting no one from whom they could obtain information concerning this melancholy scene, they returned to the ships with dejected hearts.

Columbus himself landed on the following morning, and, repairing to the ruins of the fortress, caused diligent search to be made for the dead bodies of the garrison. Cannon and arquebuses were discharged to summon any survivors that might be in the neigh

bourhood, but none made their appearance. Columbus had ordered Arana and his fellow officers, in case of sudden danger, to bury all the treasure they might possess, or throw it in the well of the fortress. The well was therefore searched, and excavations were made among the ruins, but no gold was to be found. Not far from the fortress the bodies of eleven Europeans were discovered buried in different places, and they appeared to have been for some time in the ground. In the houses of a neighbouring hamlet were found several European articles, which could not have been procured by barter. This gave suspicions that the fortress had been plundered by the Indians in the vicinity; while, on the other hand, the village of Guacanagari was a mere heap of burnt ruins, which showed that he and his people had been involved in the same disaster with the garrison. Columbus was for some time perplexed by these contradictory documents of a disastrous story. At length a communication was effected with some of the natives; their evident apprehensions were dispelled, and by the aid of the interpreter the fate of the garrison was more minutely ascertained.

It appeared that Columbus had scarcely set sail for Spain, when all his counsels and commands faded from the minds of those who remained behind. Instead of cultivating the good will of the natives, they endeavoured, by all kinds of wrongful means, to get possession of their golden ornaments and other articles of value, and seduced from them their wives and daughters. Fierce brawls occurred between themselves, about their ill-gotten spoils, or the favours of the Indian women. In vain did