CHAP V I I . ]
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
355
a prisoner, he would be a hostage for the security of the settle ment. Anxious to secure his prize, he determined to send the cacique and the other prisoners on board of the boats, while he remained on shore with a part of his men to pursue the Indians who had escaped. Juan Sanchez, the principal pilot of the squad ron, a powerful and spirited man, volunteered to take charge of the captives. On committing the chieftain to his care, the Adelantado warned him to be on his guard against any attempt at rescue or escape. The sturdy pilot replied that if the cacique got out of his hands, he would give them leave to pluck out his beard, hair by hair ; with this vaunt he departed, bearing off Quibian bound hand and foot. On arriving at the boat, he se cured him by a strong cord to one of the benches. It was a dark night. As the boat proceeded down the river, the cacique com plained piteously of the painfulness of his bonds. The rough heart of the pilot was touched with compassion, and he loosened the cord by which Quibian was tied to the bench, keeping the end of it in his hand. The wily Indian watched his opportunity, and when Sanchez was looking another way, plunged into the water and disappeared. So sudden and violent was his plunge, that the pilot had to let go the cord, lest he should be drawn in after him. The darkness of the night, and the bustle which took place, in preventing the escape of the other prisoners, rendered it impossible to pursue the cacique, or even to ascertain his fate. Juan Sanchez hastened to the ships with the residue of the cap tives, deeply mortified at being thus outwitted by a savage. The Adelantado remained all night on shore. The following morning, when he beheld the wild, broken, and mountainous na ture of the country, and the scattered situation of the habitations, perched on different heights, he gave up the search after the In-