In The Meanwhile, The Caravels Not Coming, And Most Of The Rebels Having
No Mind To Embark, They Took The Delay As A Pretence For Remaining In The
Island, Throwing All The Blame Upon The Admiral, As If He Had Not
Dispatched Them As Soon As It Was In His Power.
Being informed of this, he
wrote to Roldan and Adrian, endeavouring to persuade them in a friendly
manner to perform the agreement and not to relapse into rebellion.
Besides
this, Caravajal, who was then at Xaragua, entered a formal protest on the
20th of April, before a notary named Francis de Garai, afterwards governor
of Panuco and Jamaica, requiring them, since the admiral had furnished
them with ships, to embark pursuant to their agreement. And because they
would not, and because the ships bottoms suffered much from the ravages of
the worms, and the men began to be in want of provisions, he ordered them
back to St Domingo on the 25th of April.
The rebels were no way concerned at this, but rather rejoiced and grew
haughty on seeing that such account was made of them, and were so far from
acknowledging the civility and attention of the admiral, that they laid it
to his charge in writing, that through his fault they were forced to stay;
that he had a mind to be revenged upon them, and had therefore delayed to
send the caravels, which were in such bad condition that it were
impossible they should go in them to Spain; and though they had been never
so good, their provisions were all expended in waiting for them, and they
could not provide more for a long while to come:
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