Since They Promised This As Soon As They
Heard That Two Ships Had Come To The Assistance Of The Lieutenant,
They
had much more cause to perform it when the admiral was actually returned,
had they not been dissuaded during
Their long conference with Caravajal.
Had he done his duty, he ought to have kept Roldan and the other chiefs of
the rebellion as prisoners in his caravel, as they were two days on board
without any security or safe conduct asked or given. And knowing that they
were in rebellion he ought not to have permitted them to purchase from the
ships 56 swords and 60 cross-bows. As there were strong suspicions that
the men who were to land with John Anthony meant to join the rebels, he
ought not to have allowed them to land, or should have been more earnest
in his endeavours to recover them. Caravajal circulated a report that he
had come to the Indies as coadjutor to the admiral, so that nothing might
be done without him, lest the admiral might commit some offence. Roldan
had written to the admiral that he was drawing near to St Domingo by the
advice of Caravajal, to be nearer him to treat for an accommodation on his
arrival; and now that the admiral was arrived, his actions not suiting
with his letter, it was to be presumed that Caravajal had invited him
thither to the end that, if the admiral had been long of coming, or had
not come at all, he as the admirals associate and Roldan as chief judge
might have usurped the government of the island to the exclusion of the
lieutenant.
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