At last the famished party got back to Veragua. Eighty men landed with
the idea of forming a settlement under Bartolome Colon. They had the
good sense to act in the friendliest manner to the native chief; but he
was not the simple-minded creature that Guacanagari was, over in Haiti.
He saw at once that they wanted gold, so he nodded obligingly, and
indicated by signs that he would lead them to the gold mines. And he
did; but they proved to be the small, worked-out mines of a neighboring
chief who drove the intruders off. Back they went to the first chief's
land and began to build a stockade. The first chief still appeared
friendly enough, but a very clever young Spaniard named Diego Mendez
happened to prowl through the undergrowth to the Indian village and saw
the warriors sharpening their knives and making ready to attack the
uninvited settlers. Off rushed Diego to tell Don Bartolome; and he,
believing that "the best defense is a sharp attack," rushed to the
village, captured the chief and many warriors, and sent them captive
aboard the waiting caravels. The chief, however, succeeded in jumping
over the side, diving to the bottom, and swimming ashore.

It was then quite dark and none saw him come to the surface, but the
next day he had another force ready to defy them. Of his fellow-
prisoners who had been thrust into the hold, some managed to throw open
a hatchway, overpower the guard, and likewise plunge into the sea. The
sailors hurriedly pushed back the hatchway so that no more might climb
out on deck; but next morning it was discovered that all those who had
not escaped were dead. They had committed suicide rather than be carried
off by the ruthless strangers.

All this time there was such a rough sea that no small boats could get
ashore from the caravels to obtain news of the eighty colonists under