pleasure, he bade her come with all her caciques to his quarters, for he
wanted to talk to them, intimating, as I conjecture, that he would explain
the festivity to them. Meanwhile, he gave his cavalry orders to surround
the building; he placed the infantry at certain commanding positions; and
told his men, that when, in talking with the caciques, he should place his
hand upon the badge of knighthood which hung upon his breast, they should
rush in and bind the caciques and Anacaona. It fell out as he had planned.
All these deluded Indian chiefs and their queen were secured. She alone
was led out of Ovando's quarters, which were then set fire to, and all the
chiefs burnt alive. Anacaona was afterwards hanged and the province was
desolated.

Humanity does not gain much, after all, by this man's not taking the title
of "Lordship" which he had a right to.

Finally, the governor collected the former followers of Roldan in Xaragua,
and formed a town of their settlement, which he named "the city of the
true peace" (La villa de la vera Paz), but which a modern chronicler well
says might more properly havc been named "Aceldama, the field of blood." I
observe that the arms assigned to this new settlement were a dove with the
olive-branch, a rainbow, and a cross.


FERDINAND'S LETTER TO COLUMBUS

But it is time to return to Columbus, who in the mean time was chafing at
the inactivity which had been forced upon him. His was a restless spirit,
perhaps too restless for an organizer, who ought to possess an
inexhaustible amount of patience, and to be able to wait as well as to
labour. He had formed a theory that some strait existed through which a