occurrences of the island. Enjoining secrecy on his men, he went on board,
pretending to be stationed in that neighborhood for the purpose of keeping
the natives in obedience, and collecting tribute. His conjectures as to
the vessels were correct. They were, in fact, the three caravels detached
by Columbus from his squadron at the Canary Islands, to bring supplies to
the colonies. The captains, ignorant of the strength of the currents,
which set through the Caribbean Sea, had been carried west far beyond
their reckoning, until they had wandered to the coast of Xaragua.

Roldan kept his secret closely for three days. Being considered a man in
important trust and authority, the captains did not hesitate to grant all
his requests for supplies. He procured swords, lances, cross-bows, and
various military stores; while his men, dispersed through the three
vessels, were busy among the crews, secretly making partisans,
representing the hard life of the colonists at San Domingo, and the ease
and revelry in which they passed their time at Xaragua. Many of the crews
had been shipped in compliance with the admiral's ill-judged proposition,
to commute criminal punishments into transportation to the colony. They
were vagabonds, the refuse of Spanish towns, and culprits from Spanish
dungeons; the very men, therefore, to be wrought upon by such
representations, and they promised to desert on the first opportunity and
join the rebels.

It was not until the third day, that Alonzo Sanchez de Carvajal, the most
intelligent of the three captains, discovered the real character of the
guests he had admitted so freely on board of his vessels. It was then too
late; the mischief was effected. He and his fellow captains had many
earnest conversations with Roldan, endeavoring to persuade him from his
dangerous opposition to the regular authority. The certainty that Columbus
was actually on his way to the island, with additional forces, and