THE
COMPANIONS
OF
COLUMBUS.
53
After traversing the Gulf of Paria, and before reaching the island of Margarita, the caravel Santa Ana, commanded by Hernan de Guevara, was separated from them, and for several days the ships were mutually seeking each other in these silent and trackless seas.
After they were all reunited they found their
provisions growing scanty, they landed therefore at a part of the coast called Cumana by the natives, but to which, from its beauty and fertility, Ojeda gave the name of Valfermoso.
While forag
ing here for their immediate supplies, the idea occurred to Ojeda that he should want furniture and utensils of all kinds for his pro posed colony, and that it would be better to pillage them from a country where he was a mere transient visitor, than to wrest them from his neighbors in the territory where he was to set up his government.
His companions were struck with the policy, if
not the justice, of this idea, and they all set to work to carry it into execution.
Dispersing themselves, therefore, in ambush in
various directions, they at a concerted signal rushed forth from their concealment, and set upon the natives.
Ojeda had issued
orders to do as little injury and damage as possible, and on no account to destroy the habitations of the Indians.
His followers,
however, in their great zeal, transcended his orders.
Seven or
eight Indians were killed and many wounded in the skirmish which took place, and a number of their cabins were wrapped in flames.
A great quantity of hammocks, of cotton, and of uten
sils of various kinds, fell into the hands of the conquerors ; they also captured several female Indians, some of whom were ran somed with the kind of gold called guanin ; some were retained by Vergara for himself and "his friend Ocampo, others were dis tributed among the crews, the rest, probably the old and ugly,