26
LIFE A N D VOYAGES OF
[BOOK VIII
rest of you are starving :” so saying, he turned loose the pigeons from a window of the tower. During the siege, Ojeda displayed the greatest activity of spirit and fertility of resource. He baffled all the arts of the Carib chieftain, concerting stratagems of various kinds to relieve the garrison and annoy the foe. He sallied forth whenever the enemy appeared in any force, leading the van with that headlong valor for which he was noted ; making great slaughter with his single arm, and, as usual, escaping unhurt from amidst showers of darts and arrows. Caonabo saw many of his bravest warriors slain. His forces were diminishing, for the Indians, unused to any protracted ope rations of war, grew weary of this siege, and returned daily in numbers to their homes. He gave up all further attempt, there fore, on the fortress, and retired, filled with admiration of the prowess and achievements of Ojeda.* The restless chieftain was not discouraged by the failure of this enterprise, but meditated schemes of a bolder and more extensive nature. Prowling in secret in the vicinity of Isabella, he noted the enfeebled state of the settlement.†Many of the inhabitants were suffering under various maladies, and most of the men capable of bearing arms were distributed about the coun try. He now conceived the project of a general league among the caciques, to surprise and overwhelm the settlement, and mas sacre the Spaniards wherever they could be found. This handful of intruders once exterminated, he trusted the island would be delivered from all further molestation of the kind ; little dream ing of the hopeless nature of the contest, and that where the * Oviedo, Cronica de las Indias, lib. iii. cap. 1. † Hist. del Almirante, cap. 6 0 .