bring after him another ship with needed supplies. With Ojeda was
Francisco Pizarro, a middle-aged soldier of fortune, who had not
hitherto distinguished himself in any way. Hernando Cortez was to have
gone along also, but fortunately for him, an inflammation of the knee
kept him at home. Ojeda was in such a hurry to get to El Dorado--for
it was in the territory to the southward of his allotment, that the
mysterious city was supposed to be located--that he did not stop at
Jamaica to take off Esquivel's head--a good thing for him, as it
subsequently turned out.

Nicuesa would have followed Ojeda immediately, but his prodigal
generosity had exhausted even his large resources, and he was detained
by clamorous creditors, the law of the island being that no one could
leave it in debt. The gallant little meat-carver labored with success
to settle various suits pending, and thought {10} he had everything
compounded; but just as he was about to sail he was arrested for
another debt of five hundred ducats. A friend at last advanced the
money for him and he got away ten days after Ojeda. It would have been
a good thing if no friend had ever interfered and he had been detained
indefinitely at Hispaniola.

III. The Adventures of Ojeda

Ojeda made a landfall at what is known now as Cartagena. It was not a
particularly good place for a settlement. There was no reason on earth
why they should stay there at all. La Cosa, who had been along the
coast several times and knew it thoroughly, warned his youthful
captain--to whom he was blindly and devotedly attached, by the
way--that the place was extremely dangerous; that the inhabitants were
fierce, brave and warlike, and that they had a weapon almost as
effectual as the Spanish guns. That was the poisoned arrow. Ojeda
thought he knew everything and he turned a deaf ear to all
remonstrances. He hoped he might chance upon an opportunity of
surprising an Indian village and capturing a lot of inoffensive
inhabitants for slaves, already a very profitable part of voyaging to
the Indies.

He landed without much difficulty, assembled the natives and read to
them a perfectly absurd manifesto, which had been prepared in Spain for
use in similar contingencies, summoning them to change their religion
and to acknowledge the supremacy of Spain. Not one word of this did
the natives understand and to it they responded with a volley of
poisoned arrows. The Spanish considered this pap