Towards Evening On Thursday The Twenty-Eighth November The Admiral Came With All The Fleet Into The Harbour Of The Nativity, And Found The Whole Town Burnt, And No Person Whatever Could Be Seen About The Place.

Next morning the admiral landed, and was much concerned to find the fort and houses entirely destroyed, and nothing left which had belonged to the Christians, except some tattered garments and other broken articles of no value.

Finding no person at whom he could make inquiries, he went up a river in the neighbourhood with several boats, leaving orders to clean out the well which he had dug in the fort, as he had directed the colonists to throw all the gold they could get into that well, to be prepared against the worst that might happen; but nothing of the kind could be found. On his way up the river he could meet with none of the Indians, who all fled from their houses into the woods on his approach. He therefore returned to Nauidad, where eight of the Christians had been discovered and three others in the fields, who were recognized by the remnants of their apparel, and seemed to have been a month dead. While prosecuting this melancholy search, a brother of the cacique Guacanagari came, accompanied by some Indians, to the admiral. These men could speak a few words of Spanish, and knew the names of all the Christians who had been left there. They said that those Spaniards had soon fallen out among themselves after the departure of the admiral, everyone taking for himself as much gold and as many women as he could procure. That Gutierres and Escovedo killed one named James, and then went away with nine others and all their women to the territories of a cacique named Caunabo who was lord of the mines, and by whom they had all been killed. That many days afterwards Caunabo came with a great number of men to Nauidad, where only James de Arana remained with ten men to guard the fort, all the rest of the Spaniards having dispersed about the island. Caunabo came by night and set fire to the houses where the Christians resided with their women, all of whom fled to the sea, where eight of them were drowned, three of them being slain on shore. That Guacanagari, in fighting against Caunabo in defence of the Christians, had been wounded and fled.

This account agreed with that which was received by some Spaniards whom the admiral had sent up into the country, and had gone to a town in the interior where the cacique lay ill of his wounds. This he said had prevented him from waiting upon the admiral and giving him an account of the catastrophe of the Christians, which he narrated exactly in conformity with the account given by his brother, and he requested that the admiral would go to see him as he was unable to be moved. The admiral went accordingly next day, and with great signs of sorrow the cacique related all that had happened, and that he and his men had all been wounded in endeavouring to defend the Christians, as appeared by their wounds, which had not been inflicted by Christian weapons, but with aragayas or wooden swords and arrows pointed with fish bones.

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