one-armed deserter, who had absconded; and on the following day, Ojeda,
according to agreement, set sail to leave the island, threatening however
to return at a future time with more ships and men. [61]

Roldan waited in the neighborhood, doubting the truth of his departure. In
the course of a few days, word was brought that Ojeda had landed on a
distant part of the coast. He immediately pursued him with eighty men in
canoes, sending scouts by land. Before he arrived at the place, Ojeda had
again made sail, and Roldan saw and heard no more of him. Las Casas
asserts, however, that Ojeda departed either to some remote district of
Hispaniola, or to the island of Porto Rico, where he made up what he
called his _Cavalgada_, or drove of slaves; carrying off numbers of
the unhappy natives, whom he sold in the slave-market of Cadiz. [62]




Chapter VII.

Conspiracy of Guevara and Moxica.

[1500.]



When men have been accustomed to act falsely, they take great merit to
themselves for an exertion of common honesty. The followers of Roldan were
loud in trumpeting forth their unwonted loyalty, and the great services
they had rendered to government in driving Ojeda from the island. Like all
reformed knaves, they expected that their good conduct would be amply