Ballester Made Answer On The Fourteenth February[1] 1498, That He Had Received Certain Information That Riquelme Had Come The

Day before to the town of Bonao, and that Roldan and Adrian, the ringleaders of the mutineers, were to be

There in seven or eight days, when he might apprehend them, as he did[2]. Ballaster conferred with them pursuant to the instructions he had received, but found them obstinate and unmannerly. Roldan said that they had not come to treat of an accommodation, as they neither desired nor cared for peace, as he held the admiral and his authority in his power, either to support or suppress it at his pleasure: That they must not talk to him of any accommodation until they had sent him all the Indian prisoners who were taken at the siege of the Conception. He added other things, by which it plainly appeared that he would enter into no agreement that was not much to his advantage: And he demanded that Caravajal should be sent to treat with him, declaring his resolution to treat with no other person, he being a man of discretion who would listen to reason, as he had found by experience when the three ships were at Xaragua. This answer made the admiral suspect the fidelity of Caravajal, and not without much cause for the following reasons.

Before Caravajal was at Xaragua, the rebels had often wrote and sent messages to their friends who were with the lieutenant, asserting that they would submit to the admiral on his arrival, and requesting them to intercede with and appease him.

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