>
timbers was constructed a small but strong fort, with a deep vault beneath

and a ditch surrounding. Friendly Indians aided in this, and not a shred

of the stranded vessel was left to the waves. As the "Nina" was too small

to carry all his crew back to Spain, Columbus decided to leave a garrison

to hold this fort and search for gold until he should return. That the

island held plenty of gold he felt sure. So Captain Ardua was left, with a

garrison of forty men, and the "Nina" spread her sails to the winds to

carry to Spain the wonderful news of the great discovery.



La Navidad, or The Nativity, he named the fort, in remembrance of the day

of the wreck, and when he came back in 1493 he hopefully expected to find

its garrison awaiting him, with a rich treasure in the precious yellow

metal. He reached the spot to find the fort a ruin and the garrison a

remembrance only. They had been attacked by the Indians and massacred

during the absence of the admiral.



In fact, the mild, gentle, and friendly Indians whom Columbus had met with

on his first voyage were not the only people of the islands. There were on

some of the West Indies a warlike race called Caribs,--cannibals, the

Spaniards said they were,--who gave the invaders no small trouble before

they were overcome.



It was a band of these fierce Caribs that had attacked La Navidad and

destroyed the fort and its garrison, impelled to this, likely enough, by

some of the ruthless acts which the Spaniards were much too ready to

commit. The leader of these warriors was a bold cacique named Caonabo,

chief of a warlike mountain tribe. It is with this chieftain that we are

at present concerned, as he was the hero, or victim rather, of the first

romantic story known to us in Indian life.



In addition to the forts built by the Spaniards on the coast of

Hispaniola, there was one built far in the interior, called Fort Santo

Tomas. This stood in the mountainous region of Cibao, the reputed land of

gold of the island. Its site lay within the territory of Caonabo, who

ruled over a great district, his capital town or village being on the

southern slope of the Cibao Mountains.



The first conflict between the Spaniards and the natives, after the

massacre of the garrison of La Navidad, was in the district of the Vega,

where a fierce fight took place in the spring of 1495, the natives

suffering a severe defeat. The next was at Fort Santo Tomas, which was

commanded by Alonso de Ojeda, a young man who had come out with Columbus

in his second voyage. He was a man of great courage and unusual daring,

one of the chief among those dauntless spirits who had to do with the

conquest of the New World.



A man of his spirit was needed to command this isolated fort in the

mountains, for the cacique, Caonabo, was not pleased with this invasion of

his territory, and soon marched upon the fort with a strong force of his

warlike race. Santo Tomas was closely invested and fiercely attacked,

Ojeda being reduced to such an extremity that he owed his escape only to a

rescuing force sent by Columbus from Fort Isabella, on the coast. Driven

off by the superior arms of his foes, Caonabo withdrew sullenly to his

stronghold in the mountains. But he was quickly back again, with a larger

force than before. He had never met his equal among the Indians, but the

fire-spouting tubes of the Spaniards proved too much even for his courage,

and he was a second time forced to withdraw.



It was evident, however, that Ojeda was perilously situated, surrounded as

he was by warlike enemies, led by so bold and persistent a chief. In the

face of this peril he adopted an expedient as daring as any of those shown

by Cortez, Pizarro, or any other of the Spanish caballeros of that age of

conquest, and one whose ingenuity equalled its daring. It is this striking

adventure which it is our purpose to describe.



Choosing from his men a few of the bravest and most trusty, Ojeda set out

on horseback over the mountains, following paths never before traversed by

the Spaniards, until they came to the Carib town of Maguana, where he

found Caonabo surrounded by a throng of armed warriors. The Spaniards had

bearded the lion in his den, and were in a position of extreme peril

should the cacique prove hostile. But Ojeda was a past-master in

craftiness, and by professions of friendship and other arts of duplicity

he persuaded the chief to accompany him alone into the edge of the forest.



He now took from his pocket a pair of handcuffs, bright and shining

manacles of which the untutored Indian had no conception of the use, but

whose brightness attracted him. Ojeda told him they were bracelets, which

the King of Spain had graciously sent him as a present, in recognition of

his fame as a warrior of skill and courage. The poor Indian probably

understood all this very imperfectly, but he was easily brought to view

the manacles as Turey or a gift from Heaven, and willingly held out his

wrists that his guest might adorn them with those strange and splendid

bracelets.



In a moment his hands were secured, and before he could recover from his

surprise Ojeda, whose small frame concealed much strength, reached from

his saddle, seized the astonished chief, and by a great exertion of

muscular force lifted him from the ground and swung him up on the horse.

The warriors, who beheld this act with sudden suspicion, had no time to

use their weapons before the Spaniards had put spur to their horses and

dashed off into the forest. Two of them rode on each side of Ojeda, to

prevent the captive throwing himself from the horse. Threatened by their

swords and with his hands clasped in those fatal bracelets, Caonabo was

forced to submit, and was carried by his captors for many miles through

the heart of his own country to Fort Isabella, a stronghold which Columbus

had built at a site on the sea-coast, fronting a bay in which all his

vessels could ride in safety. Here the bold Ojeda, as the culmination of

his daring enterprise, delivered his captive to Columbus, and he was

locked up in a secure cell.



As the story goes, the brave cacique had a greater admiration for courage

than anything else in the world, and instead of hating Ojeda for the

crafty way in which he had been captured, he seemed to hold him in high

esteem as the bravest of the Spaniards. Whenever Ojeda appeared in his

cell he would rise and courteously salute him, while he treated the visits

of Columbus with haughty disregard. So far as the captive cacique could

make himself understood, the high rank of Columbus was nought to him. He

had no proof that he was a man of courage, while the manner in which Ojeda

had captured him showed him to be a brave man. To the bold Carib courage

was the first of virtues and the only one worthy of respect.



The poor Indian suffered the fate of most of his countrymen who had to do

with the Spanish invaders. Put on board ship and sent as a prize of valor

to Spain, the unfortunate chief died on the voyage, perhaps from a broken

heart, or as a result of the change from his free forest life to the

narrow confines of a fifteenth-century ship.



The life of Ojeda after that date was one full of adventure, in which he

distinguished himself as much by rashness as by valor. In 1499 he was put

in command of an exploring expedition and sent out from Spain, one of his

companions being Amerigo Vespucci, he whose first name gained the

immemorial honor of being given to the great western continent. In this

voyage Ojeda discovered part of the continent of South America, which he

called Venezuela, or Little Venice, a name suggested by an Indian village

built on piles in the water. Eight years later Ojeda sought to plant a

colony in New Andalusia, but the natives there proved too bold and hostile

for him, and he failed to subject them to his authority.



Many were his adventures, all of them characterized by a rash daring like

that he had shown in the capture of Caonabo. When at length he died, he

was buried, in response to his own request, in the doorway of the

Franciscan monastery in the city of Santo Domingo, so that all who entered

that place of worship should walk over his grave.