were much enfeebled by scanty fare, hard service, and long marches,
hurried them rapidly forward. Never did aid arrive more opportunely. The
Indians were assembled on the plain, to the amount of many thousands,
armed after their manner, and waiting for the appointed time to strike the
blow. After consulting with the commander of the fortress and his
officers, the Adelantado concerted a mode of proceeding. Ascertaining the
places in which the various caciques had distributed their forces, he
appointed an officer with a body of men to each cacique, with orders, at
an appointed hour of the night, to rush into the villages, surprise them
asleep and unarmed, bind the caciques, and bring them off prisoners. As
Guarionex was the most important personage, and his capture would probably
be attended with most difficulty and danger, the Adelantado took the
charge of it upon himself, at the head of one hundred men.

This stratagem, founded upon a knowledge of the attachment of the Indians
to their chieftains, and calculated to spare a great effusion of blood,
was completely successful. The villages, having no walls nor other
defences, were quietly entered at midnight; and the Spaniards, rushing
suddenly into the houses where the caciques were quartered, seized and
bound them, to the number of fourteen, and hurried them off to the
fortress, before any effort could be made for their defence or rescue. The
Indians, struck with terror, made no resistance, nor any show of
hostility; surrounding the fortress in great multitudes, but without
weapons, they filled the air with doleful howlings and lamentations,
imploring the release of their chieftains. The Adelantado completed his
enterprise with the spirit, sagacity, and moderation with which he had
hitherto conducted it. He obtained information of the causes of this
conspiracy, and the individuals most culpable. Two caciques, the principal
movers of the insurrection, and who had most wrought upon the easy nature
of Guarionex, were put to death. As to that unfortunate cacique, the