CHAP. V I I . ]
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
183
ritories had never yet been visited by the Spaniards ; and she was reputed to be one of the most beautiful women of the island. Tenderly attached to her brother, she had abandoned the security of her own dominions, and had followed him among rocks and precipices, participating in all his hardships, and comforting him with a woman's sympathy and kindness. When her husband heard of her captivity, he hastened to the Adelantado and offered to submit himself and all his possessions to his sway, if his wife might be restored to him. The Adelantado accepted his offer of allegiance, and released his wife and several of his subjects who had been captured. The cacique, faithful to his word, became a firm and valuable ally of the Spaniards, cultivating large tracts of land, and supplying them with great quantities of bread and other provisions. Kindness appears never to have been lost upon the people of this island. When this act of clemency reached the Ciguayans, they came in multitudes to the fortress, bringing presents of va足 rious kinds, promising allegiance, and imploring the release of Mayobanex and his family. The Adelantado granted their pray足 ers in part, releasing the wife and household of the cacique, but still detaining him prisoner to insure the fidelity of his subjects. In the meantime the unfortunate Guarionex, who had been hiding in the wildest parts of the mountains, was driven by hun足 ger to venture down occasionally into the plain in quest of food. The Ciguayans looking upon him as the cause of their misfor足 tunes, and perhaps hoping by his sacrifice to procure the release of their chieftain, betrayed his haunts to the Adelantado. A party was dispatched to secure him. They lay in wait in the path by which he usually returned to the mountains. As the unhappy cacique, after one of his famished excursions, was returning to his den