[Works] . rough these means a violent279 28o Tlbe ILife anO IDogages ot and general hostility to the Spaniards wasexcited throughout the island, and the formi-dable league of the caciques, which Caonabohad in vain attempted to accomplish when atlarge, was produced by his captivity. Gua-canagari, the cacique of Marien, alone re-mained friendly to the Spaniards, giving themtimely information of the gathering storm,and offering to take the field with them as afaithful ally. The protracted illness of Columbus, thescantiness of his military force, and thewretched state of the colo-nists in general,
[Works] . rough these means a violent279 28o Tlbe ILife anO IDogages ot and general hostility to the Spaniards wasexcited throughout the island, and the formi-dable league of the caciques, which Caonabohad in vain attempted to accomplish when atlarge, was produced by his captivity. Gua-canagari, the cacique of Marien, alone re-mained friendly to the Spaniards, giving themtimely information of the gathering storm,and offering to take the field with them as afaithful ally. The protracted illness of Columbus, thescantiness of his military force, and thewretched state of the colo-nists in general, reducedby sickness and scarcity togreat bodily weakness, hadhitherto induced him to tryevery means of conciliationand strategem to avert anddissolve the had at length recoveredhis health, and his follow-ers were in some degree re-freshed and invigorated bythe supplies brought by theships. At this time he re-ceived intelligence, that theallied caciques were actu-ally assembled in great force. SPANISH SOLDIER. Cbrlstopber Columbus. 281 in the Vega, within two days march ofIsabella, with an intention of making a generalassault upon the settlement, and overwhelmingit by numbers. Columbus resolved to takethe field at once, and tocarry the war into the ter-ritories of the enemy, ratherthan suffer it to be broughtto his own door. The whole sound and ef-fective force that he couldmuster, in the present in-firm state of the colony, didnot exceed two hundred in-fantry and twenty were armed with cross-bows, swords, lances, andespingardas, or heavy arque-buses, which in those dayswere used with rests, andsometimes mounted onwheels. With these formi-dable weapons, a handful ofEuropean warriors, cased insteel and covered in buck-lers, were able to cope with thousands of nakedsavages. They had aid of another kind, how-ever, consisting of twenty bloodhounds, ani-mals scarcely less terrible to the Indians than
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookpublishernewyorkgpputnam
