CHAP.
XII.]
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
389
singly or in small parties, lest they should be cut off by the na tives ; for though these people were pusillanimous, there were no people so apt to be perfidious and cruel as cowards.* These judicious instructions, which, if followed, might have preserved an amicable intercourse with the natives, are more especially deserving of notice, because Margarite
disregarded
them all, and by his disobedience brought trouble on the colony, obloquy on the nation, destruction on the Indians, and unmerited censure on Columbus. In addition to the foregoing orders, there were particular direc tions for the surprising and securing of the persons of Caonabo and his brothers.
The warlike character of that chieftain, his
artful policy, extensive power, and implacable hostility, rendered him a dangerous enemy.
The measures proposed were not the
most open and chivalrous, but Columbus thought himself justified in opposing stratagem to stratagem with a subtle and sangui nary foe. The 9th of April, Alonso de Ojeda sallied forth from Isabella at the head of the forces, amounting to nearly four hundred men. On arriving at the Rio del Oro in the Royal Vega, he learnt that three Spaniards coming from the fortress of St. Thomas had been robbed of their effects by five Indians, whom a neighboring cacique had sent to assist them in fording the river; and that the cacique, instead of punishing the thieves, had countenanced them and shared their booty.
Ojeda was a quick, impetuous soldier,
whose ideas of legislation were all of a military kind.
Having
caught one of the thieves, he caused his ears to be cut off in the public square of the village: he then seized the cacique, his son,
* Letter of Columbus.
Navarrete, Colec., tom. ii. Document No. 72.