fortress of St. Thomas at the time of the battle on the Vega Real,
remained untaken. The admiral resolved to secure the person of this
cacique by treachery; and sent Ojeda (who afterwards became a conspicuous
actor in the sad drama of conquest and depopulation in the West Indies) to
cajole Caonabo into coming to a friendly meeting. There are some curious
instructions of Columbus's to Margarite in 1494, respecting a plot to take
this formidable Caonabo. They are as thoroughly base and treacherous as
can well be imagined. This time the admiral's plan was completely
successful.


CUNNING CAPTURE OF INDIAN CHIEF.

The story which was current in the colonies, of the manner in which Ojeda
captured the resolute Indian chief, is this. Ojeda carried with him gyves
and manacles, the latter of the kind called by the Spaniards, somewhat
satirically, esposas (wives), and all made of brass or steel, finely
wrought, and highly polished. The metals of Spain were prized by the
Indians in the same way that the gold of the Indies was by the Spaniards.
Moreover, amongst the Indians, there was a strange rumour of talking
brass, that arose from their listening to the church bell at Isabella,
which, summoning the Spaniards to mass, was thought by the simple Indians
to converse with them. Indeed the natives of Hispaniola held the Spanish
metals in such estimation that they applied to them an Indian word, Turey,
which seems to have signified anything that descends from heaven. When,
therefore, Ojeda brought these ornaments to Caonabo, and told him they
were Biscayan Turey, and that they were a great present from the admiral,
and that he would show him how to put them on, and that when they were put
on Caonabo should set himself on Ojeda's horse and be shown to his
admiring subjects, as, Ojeda said, the kings of Spain were wont to show