eant to
let him starve on the island, and that the real purpose of Escobar's
visit had been to find out what condition the Admiral was in, so that
Ovando might know how to act. It is very hard to get at the truth of
what these two men thought of each other. They were both suspicious,
each was playing for his own hand, and Ovando was only a little more
unscrupulous than Columbus; but there can be no doubt that whatever his
motives may have been Ovando acted with abominable treachery and cruelty
in leaving the Admiral unrelieved for nearly nine months.

Columbus now tried to make use of the visit of Escobar to restore to
allegiance the band of rebels that were wandering about in the
neighbourhood under the leadership of the Porras brothers. Why he should
have wished to bring them back to the ships is not clear, for by all
accounts he was very well rid of them; but probably his pride as a
commander was hurt by the thought that half of his company had defied his
authority and were in a state of mutiny. At any rate he sent out an
ambassador to Porras, offering to receive the mutineers back without any
punishment, and to give them a free passage to Espanola in the vessels
which were shortly expected, if they would return to their allegiance
with him.

The folly of this overture was made manifest by the treatment which it
received. It was bad enough to make advances to the Porras brothers, but
it was still worse to have those advances repulsed, and that is what
happened. The Porras brothers, being themselves incapable of any
single-mindedness, affected not to believe in the sincerity of the
Admiral's offer; they feared that he was laying some kind of trap for
them; moreover, they were doing very well in their lawless way, and
living very comfortably on the natives; so they told Columbus's
ambassadors that his offer was declined. At the same time they
undertook to conduct themselves in an amicable and orderly manner on
condition that, when the vessels arrived, one of them should be
apportioned to the exclusive use of the mutineers; and that in the
meantime the Admiral should share with them his store of provisions
and trinkets, as theirs were exhausted.

This was the impertinent decision of the Porras brothers; but it did not
quite commend itself to their followers, who were fearful of the possible
results if they should persist in their mutinous conduct. They were very
much afraid of being left behind in the islan