THE
COMPANIONS
OF C O L U M B U S .
27
On the following day the savages were seen on the shore in still greater numbers, armed and painted, and decorated with war plumes, and sounding defiance with their conchs and drums. Ojeda again landed with fifty-seven men, whom he separated into four companies and ordered to charge the enemy from different direc tions.
The Caribs fought for a time hand to hand, displaying
great dexterity in covering themselves with their bucklers, but were at length entirely routed, and driven with great slaughter to the forests.
The Spaniards had but one man killed and twenty-
one wounded in these combats,—such superior advantage did their armor give them over the naked savages.
Having plundered and
set fire to the houses, they returned triumphantly to their ships, with a number of Carib captives ; and made sail for the main-land. Ojeda bestowed a part of the spoil upon the seven Indians who had accompanied him as guides, and sent them exulting to their homes, to relate to their countrymen the signal vengeance wreaked upon their foes.
He then anchored in a bay where he remained
for twenty days until his men had recovered from their wounds.* * There is some discrepance in the early accounts of this battle, as to the time and place of its occurrence.
The author has collated the narratives of
Vespucci, Las Casas, Herrera, and Peter Martyr, and the evidence given in the lawsuit of Diego Columbus, and has endeavored as much as possible to recon cile them.