every adult native in the island. Every three months a hawk's bell full
of gold was to be brought to the treasury at Isabella, and in the case 39
of caciques the measure was a calabash. A receipt in the form of a brass
medal was fastened to the neck of every Indian when he paid his tribute,
and those who could not show the medal with the necessary number of marks
were to be further fined and punished. In the districts where there was
no gold, 25 lbs. of cotton was accepted instead.

This levy was made in ignorance of the real conditions under which the
natives possessed themselves of the gold. What they had in many cases
represented the store of years, and in all but one or two favoured
districts it was quite impossible for them to keep up the amount of the
tribute. Yet the hawks' bells, which once had been so eagerly coveted
and were now becoming hated symbols of oppression, had to be filled
somehow; and as the day of payment drew near the wretched natives, who
had formerly only sought for gold when a little of it was wanted for a
pretty ornament, had now to work with frantic energy in the river sands;
or in other cases, to toil through the heat of the day in the cotton
fields which they had formerly only cultivated enough to furnish their
very scant requirements of use and adornment. One or two caciques,
knowing that their people could not possibly furnish the required amount
of gold, begged that its value in grain might be accepted instead; but
that was not the kind of wealth that Columbus was seeking. It must be
gold or nothing; and rather than receive any other article from the
gold-bearing districts, he consented to take half the amount.


Thus step by step, and under the banner of the Holy Catholic religion,
did dark and cruel misery march through the groves and glades of the
island and banish for ever its ancient peace. This long-vanished race