THE
COMPANIONS
OF
COLUMBUS.
117
Domingo ; without any hesitation, therefore, he landed a number of his men to repair his boat, which was damaged, and to procure water.
While the men were working upon the boat, a multitude
of Indians gathered at a distance, well armed and with menacing aspect, sounding their shells and brandishing their weapons. The experience they had had of the tremendous powers of the stran足 gers, however, rendered them cautious of attacking, and for three days they hovered in this manner about the Spaniards, the latter being obliged to keep continually on the alert.
A t length two of
the Spaniards ventured one day from the main body to fill a water-cask from the adjacent river.
Scarcely had they reached
the margin of the stream, when eleven savages sprang from the thickets and surrounded them, bending their bows and pointing their arrows.
In this way they stood for a moment or two in
fearful suspense, the Indians refraining from discharging their shafts, but keeping them constantly pointed at their breasts. One of the Spaniards attempted to escape to his comrades who were repairing the boat, but the other called him back, and, under足 standing something of the Indian tongue, addressed a few amica足 ble words to the savages.
The latter, astonished at being spoken
to in their own language, now relaxed a little from their fierceness, and demanded of the strangers who they were, who were their leaders, and what they sought jpon their shores.
The Spaniard
replied that they were harmless people, who came from other lands, and merely touched there through necessity, and he won足 dered that they should meet them with such hostility ; he at the same time warned them to beware, as there would come many of his countrymen well armed, and would wreak terrible vengeance upon them for any mischief they might do.
While they were
thus parleying, the Bachelor Enciso, hearing that two of his men