All Were Therefore On Short Allowance, And The Flour They Had
Still In Store Being Near Spent, It Became Necessary To Construct A Mill
For Grinding Corn:
But, as all the labouring people were sick, the better
sort were forced to work, which was extremely grievous to them, especially
as they were in want of food.
In this emergency the admiral was under the
necessity to use compulsion for carrying on the public works, that the
people might not perish. This rendered him odious to the leading Spaniards,
and gave occasion to Friar Boyle to charge him with cruelty; though it has
been alleged that the true cause of his aversion to the admiral proceeded
from being refused a larger allowance for himself and his servants than
was given to others. Provisions became at length so scarce, that even the
sick were often reduced to one egg each, and a pot of boiled Spanish pease
among five. The want of proper medicines added greatly to the distress;
for though some had been brought along with the expedition, they did not
agree with all constitutions; and, what was still worse, they had no
medical person to attend upon the sick. Many well-born men, who had never
been accustomed to such hardships, being sick and starving, and without
all hope of relief, sunk under their situation, and died almost of despair.
Afterwards, when the town of Isabella was abandoned, it was currently
reported that dreadful noises were heard in the place, so that for a long
while no one durst venture to go that way.
To add to his affliction, the admiral received intelligence from Fort St
Thomas, that all the Indians had abandoned their towns, and that Caunabo,
the cacique of one of the provinces, was making preparations to reduce the
fort. The admiral sent immediately a reinforcement of seventy of the
healthiest of his men to the fort, escorting some beasts of burden, laden
with arms and provisions. He likewise ordered Alonso de Ojedo to take the
field with as many men as were able to march, leaving only the sick and
the mechanics behind; desiring him to march about the country,
particularly the Royal Plain, where there were many caciques and an
innumerable multitude of Indians; intending to intimidate the natives by a
display of the Spanish force, and to accustom the Spaniards to use the
provisions of the country, as their own were nearly spent. Ojeda left
Isabella with above 400 men on the 9th of April; and as soon as he had
passed Golden River in the Royal Plain, he seized the cacique of one of
the towns, with his brother and nephew, whom he sent prisoners to Isabella,
and caused the ears of an Indian to be cut off in the market place. The
reason of this severity was, because when three Spaniards were going from
Fort St Thomas to Isabella, the cacique gave them five Indians to carry
their baggage across the river, who left the Spaniards and carried the
baggage back to the town, for which the cacique was so far from punishing
them, that he detained the baggage.
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