CHAP. I I . ]
CHRISTOPHER
311
COLUMBUS.
ling to sail while there was a possibility of their being alive and being recovered.
In this emergency Alonzo de Ojeda, the same
young cavalier whose exploit on the tower of the cathedral at Seville has been mentioned, volunteered to scour the island with forty men in quest of them.
He departed accordingly, and during
his absence the ships took in wood and water, and part of the crews were permitted to land, wash their clothes and recreate themselves. Ojeda and his followers pushed far into the interior; firing off arquebuses and sounding trumpets in the valleys and from the summits of cliffs and precipices, but were only answered by their own echoes.
The tropical luxuriance and density of the forests
rendered them almost impenetrable ; and it was necessary to wade a great many rivers, or probably the windings and doublings of the same stream. the extreme.
The island appeared to be naturally fertile in
The forests abounded with aromatic trees and
shrubs, among which Ojeda fancied he perceived the odor of precious gums and spices.
There was honey in hollow trees and
in the clefts of rocks : abundance of fruit also; for, according to Peter Martyr, the Caribs, in their predatory cruisings, were ac customed to bring home the seeds and roots of all kinds of plants from the distant islands and countries which they overran. Ojeda returned without any tidings of the stragglers. ral days had now elapsed since their disappearance.
Seve
They were
given up for lost, and the fleet was about sailing, when, to the universal joy, a signal was made by them from the shore.
When
they came on board, their haggard and exhausted looks bespoke what they had suffered.
For several days they had been per
plexed in trackless forests, so dense as almost to exclude the light of day.
They had clambered rocks, waded rivers, and struggled