CHAPTER IX.

THE ATTACK.




DON LEONARDO was no favorite among the tribes and chiefs of the region
which was his immediate neighborhood, and he lived within the walls of
his well-arranged residence, more like one in a fort than in his own
domestic dwelling, maintaining himself, in fact, by a regular armament
of his servants and a few countrymen whom he retained in his service.
With the negroes he was, therefore, no friend, save so far as he
purchased their prisoners of them, whom they secured in their marauding
inroads upon the interior tribes. They feared Don Leonardo because he
was a bold, bad man, and cared not for the spilling of blood at any
time, for the furtherance of his immediate gain in the trade he pursued.
It was for his interest to make them fear him, and this he contrived to
do most effectually.

As Don Leonardo always paid for the slaves he purchased of the coast
tribes in hard Spanish dollars, they believed him to possess an
inexhaustible supply of specie, and the idea of robbing him had more
than once been broached among them in their counsels; but feat and want
of tact as to proper management in conducting an assault, they felt
would insure the defeat of such a purpose, and thus the Spaniard had
remained unmolested for years in his present position, but in no way
relaxing the necessary degree of vigilance which should render safe his