CHAP.
XI.]
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
385
Isabella on account of its unhealthy situation, the city fell to ruin, and was abandoned.
Like all decayed and deserted places, it
soon became an object of awe and superstition to the common people, and no one ventured to enter its gates. Those who passed near it, or hunted the wild swine which abounded in the neighbor hood, declared they heard appalling voices issue from within its walls by night and day.
The laborers became fearful, there
fore, of cultivating the adjacent fields. The story went, adds Las Casas, that two Spaniards happened one day to wander among the ruined edifices of the place.
On entering one of the solitary
streets, they beheld two rows of men, evidently, from their stately demeanor, hidalgos of noble blood, and cavaliers of the court. They were richly attired in the old Castilian mode, with rapiers by their sides, and broad traveling hats, such as were worn at the time.
The two men were astonished to behold persons of their
rank and appearance apparently inhabiting that desolate place, unknown to the people of the island.
They saluted them, and
inquired whence they came and when they had arrived.
The
cavaliers maintained a gloomy silence, but courteously returned the salutation by raising their hands to their sombreros or hats, in taking off which their heads came off also, and their bodies stood decapitated. The whole phantom assemblage then vanished. So great was the astonishment and horror of the beholders, that they had nearly fallen dead, and remained stupefied for several days.* The foregoing legend is curious, as illustrating the supersti tious character of the age, and especially of the people with whom Columbus had to act.
It shows, also, the deep and gloomy im-
* Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 92, M S .
i. lib. ii. cap. 12.
VOL. I.
BB
Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad.