THE
COMPANIONS
OF C O L U M B U S .
G3
for ten years the profits of all the mines he should discover, pay ing to the crown one-tenth part the first year, one-ninth the second, one-eighth the third, one-seventh the fourth, and one-fifth in each of the remaining years. Juan de la Cosa, who had been indefatigable in promoting the suit of Ojeda, was appointed his lieutenant in the government, with the post of alguazil mayor of the province.
He immediately
freighted a ship and two brigantines, in which he embarked with about two hundred men.
It was a slender armament, but the
purse of the honest voyager was not very deep, and that of Ojeda was empty.
Nicuesa, having ampler means, armed four
large vessels and two brigantines, furnished them with abundant munitions and supplies, both for the voyage and the projected colony, enlisted a much greater force, and set sail in gay and vaunting style, for the golden shores of Veragua, the Aurea Chersonesus of his imagination.
C H A P T E R II.
-
PEUD BETWEEN THE RIVAL GOVERNORS OJEDA AND NICUESA. —A
CHALLENGE. [1509.]
T H E two rival armaments arrived at San Domingo about the srme time.
Nicuesa had experienced what was doubtless consid
ered a pleasant little turn of fortune by the way.
Touching at
Santa Cruz, one of the Caribbee islands, he had succeeded in capturing a hundred of the natives, whom he had borne off in his