And He Declared That He And His Friends And Followers
Would Assist Them To Assert Their Rights Against The Lieutenant, And
Declared Himself The Protector And Deliverer Of The Indians.
After this
Roldan forbade the payment of the tribute which had been imposed by the
admiral, by which means
It could not be gathered from those who were at
any distance from the residence of the lieutenant, and he was afraid to
collect it from those in his neighbourhood, lest he might provoke them to
join with the rebels. Notwithstanding of this concession, no sooner had
the lieutenant withdrawn from the Conception than Guarionex, the principal
cacique of that province, resolved to besiege that place with the
assistance of Roldan, and to destroy the Christians who defended it.
The better to effectuate this scheme, he called together all the caciques
of his party, and privately agreed with them that every one should kill
such of the Christians as resided in his district. For the territories in
Hispaniola were too small for any of them to maintain a great number of
people, and therefore the Christians were under the necessity of dividing
themselves into small parties of eight or ten in each liberty or district.
This gave the Indians hopes that, by surprizing them all at one and the
same time, they might have it in their power to extirpate the whole and
suffer none to escape. But having no other way of counting time or
ordering any thing else which requires counting, except by means of their
fingers, they resolved that every one should be ready to destroy the
Christians at the next full moon.
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