from their want of skill and experience in warfare, their plans might easily be disconcerted. He was too ill to take the field in person, his brother Diego was not of a military character, and Bartholomew was yet a stranger among the Spaniards, and regarded with jealousy. He determined, therefore, to proceed against the Indians in detail, attacking some, conciliating others, and securing certain of the most formidable by stratagem.

A small force was accordingly sent to relieve Fort Magdalena, which was beleaguered by Guatiguana, the cacique of the Grand River, who had massacred the Spaniards quartered in his town. He was driven from before the fortress, his country laid waste, and many of his warriors slain, but the chieftain made his escape. As he was tributary to Guarionex, the sovereign of the royal vega, care was taken to explain to that powerful cacique, that this was an act of mere individual punishment, not of general hostility. Guarionex was of a quiet and placable disposition; he was easily soothed and won to friendship; and, to link him in some degree to the Spanish interest, Columbus prevailed upon him to give his daughter in marriage to the converted Lucayan, who had been baptized in Spain by the name of Diego Colon, and who was devoted to the admiral. He gained permission from him also to erect a fortress in the midst of his territories, which he named Fort Conception.

The most formidable enemy remained to be disposed of, which was Caonabo; to make war upon this fierce and subtle chieftain in the depths of his wild woodland territory, and among the fastnesses of his mountains, would have been a work

of time, peril, and uncertain issue. In the meanwhile, the settlements would never be safe from his secret combinations and daring enterprises, nor could the mines be worked with security, as they lay in his neighbourhood. While perplexed on this subject, Columbus was relieved by a proposition of Alonzo de Ojeda, who undertook to bring the Carib chieftain either a friend or captive to the settlement.

Choosing ten bold and hardy followers, well armed and well mounted, and invoking the protection of his patroness the Virgin, Ojeda plunged into the forest, and making his way above sixty leagues into the wild territories of Caonabo, appeared fearlessly before the cacique in one of his most populous towns, professing to come on an amicable embassy from the admiral. He was well received by Caonabo, who had tried him in battle, and had conceived a warrior's admiration of him. The free dauntless deportment, great personal strength and agility, and surprising adroitness of Ojeda in all manly and warlike exercises, were calculated to charm a savage, and soon made him a favourite with Caonabo. He used all his influence to prevail upon the cacique to repair to Isabella, and enter into a treaty with Columbus, offering him, it is said, as an inducement, the bell of the chapel at the harbour. This bell was the wonder of the island. When its melody sounded through the forests, as it rung for mass, the Indians had noticed that the Spaniards hastened from all parts to the chapel. At other times, when it gave the vesper-peal, they beheld the Spaniards pause in the midst of their labours or amusements, and, taking

off their hats, repeat a prayer with great devotion. They imagined, therefore, that this bell had some mysterious power; that it had come from "Turey," or the skies, and was the zemi of the white men; that it talked to them, and they obeyed its orders. Caonabo had longed to see this bell, and when it was proffered to him as a present of peace, he found it impossible to resist the temptation.

He agreed to visit the admiral at the harbour; but when the time came to depart, Ojeda beheld with surprise a powerful army ready to march. He remonstrated on taking such a force on a mere friendly visit, to which the cacique proudly replied, "that it was not befitting a great prince like him to go forth scantily guarded." Ojeda feared some sinister design, and, to outwit the cacique, had resort to a stratagem which has the air of a romantic fable, but is recorded by all the cotemporary historians, and accords with the adventurous and extravagant character of the man, and the wild stratagems incident to Indian warfare.

As the army had halted one day near the river Yegua, Ojeda produced a set of manacles of polished steel, so highly burnished that they looked like silver. These he assured Caonabo were ornaments worn by the Castilian monarchs on high festivities, and were sent as a present to him. He proposed that Caonabo should bathe in the river, after which he should be decorated with these ornaments, mounted on the horse of Ojeda, and conducted back in the state of a Spanish monarch to astonish his subjects. The cacique was dazzled with the splendour of the shackles, and pleased with the idea of bestriding one of those tremendous animals so dreaded

by his countrymen. He bathed in the river, mounted behind Ojeda, and the shackles were adjusted. The Spaniards then pranced among the astonished savages, and made a wide sweep into the forest, until the trees concealed them from sight. They then drew their swords, closed round Caonabo, and threatened him with instant death, if he made the least noise or resistance. They bound him with cords to Ojeda, to prevent his falling or effecting an escape; then putting spurs to their horses, they dashed across the Yegua, made off through the woods with their prize, and, after a long, rugged, and perilous journey, entered Isabella in triumph; Ojeda bringing the wild Indian chieftain bound behind him a captive.

Columbus could not refrain from expressing his great satisfaction when this dangerous foe was delivered into his hands. The haughty Carib met him with a lofty and unsubdued air, disdaining to conciliate him by submission, or to deprecate his vengeance for his massacre of the garrison of La Navidad. He even boasted that he had secretly reconnoitred Isabella, with the design of wreaking on it the same destruction. He never evinced the least animosity against Ojeda for the artifice by which he had been captured. He looked upon it as the exploit of a master spirit, to pounce upon him, and bear him off in this hawk-like manner, from the very midst of his fighting men, for there is nothing that an Indian more admires in warfare than a deep-laid and well-executed stratagem. Whenever Columbus entered the prison of Caonabo, all present rose according to custom, and paid him reverence. The cacique alone remained sitting. On

the contrary, when Ojeda entered, though small in person, and without external state, Caonabo immediately rose and saluted him with profound respect. On being asked the reason of this, the proud Carib replied, that the admiral had never dared to come personally to his dominions and capture him ; it was only through the valour of Ojeda he was his prisoner; to the latter alone, therefore, he should pay reverence.

Columbus, though struck with the natural heroism of this savage, considered him too dangerous an enemy to be left at large. He maintained him, therefore, a close prisoner in a part of his own dwelling, until he could be shipped to Spain, but treated him with great kindness and respect. One of the brothers of the cacique assembled an army in hopes of surprising the fortress of St. Thomas, and capturing a number of Spaniards, for whom he might obtain Caonabo in exchange; but Ojeda received intelligence of his design, and coming upon him suddenly, attacked him with his little troop of horse, routed his army, killed many of his warriors, and took him prisoner.