Ojeda, who was a perfect horseman, made the horse leap, curvet and
caracole, taking a wider circuit each time, until making a long sweep
through the forest the two disappeared from the view of the Carib army
altogether. Ojeda's own men closed in upon him, bound Caonaba hand and
foot, behind their leader, and thus the chief was taken into the Spanish
settlement. The conspiracy fell to pieces and the colony was saved.

Caonaba showed no respect to Colón or any one else in the camp while a
prisoner there, except Ojeda. When Ojeda entered he promptly rose to his
feet. They had many conversations together, and Caonaba, who evidently
rather admired the stratagem by which he had been captured, agreed with
his captor that Ojeda was The Man Who Could Not Die.


NOTE

The career of Alonso de Ojeda is one of the most picturesque and
adventurous in early Spanish-American history, and his character is
typical of the young Spanish cavalier of the age just following the
discovery of America. The episodes here used, with many others quite as
dramatic, are described at length in Irving's "Life of Columbus."




THE ESCAPE


Why do you come here, white men, white men?