learning this, made a raid on the nearest natives and stole their food
and their wives; and the natives naturally took revenge.

It was while the outraged Indians were gathering in large numbers to
destroy Isabella that Columbus returned. A sad state of affairs to greet
a sick man, and especially when the trouble was all of Spanish making.
But there was no time to spend in asking whose fault it was. Their lives
were at stake. Isabella might soon share the horrible fate of La
Navidad. Columbus hurriedly mustered his men--less than two hundred--and
divided them into two companies. One of these he himself commanded, and
the other was under his older brother, Bartholomew, who had arrived from
Spain during the expedition to Cuba. The Spaniards were clad in armor.
The natives were naked and had no guns, and though they were far more
numerous than the Europeans, they were soon overcome.

One of the powerful chiefs, however, still remained unsubdued at the
head of his forces in the interior of the island. This was the chief
Caonabo, already mentioned as the one who had avenged his wrongs on the
offenders at La Navidad. Soon he too was captured by Alonzo de Ojeda
through the clever ruse of sending him a present. Then came a little
more fighting, and the men who had come to convert the savages to
Christianity obtained absolute control of the island of Haiti. The
enslaved natives, we are told, wove their sorrows into mournful ballads
which they droned out desolately as they tilled the fields of their
harsh masters.

But even with the natives subjugated there was still much discontent
among Columbus's men. There being no gold to pick up and sell, by
tilling the land only could they live; and even to farm profitably takes
years of experience. For everything that went wrong, they blamed the man