At length Alonzo de Ojeda, a brave
young cavalier, offered to go in search of them. Ojeda and his party
had great difficulty in making their way through the tangled forest. In
vain they sounded their trumpets and shot off their arquebuses. No
reply was received, and they returned on board without tidings of the
stragglers.

Several days passed, and the fleet was about to sail, when the missing
ones appeared on the beach, their haggard looks showing how much they
had suffered.

They had been lost in the trackless forest, too dense to allow them to
see any distance ahead, until they had reached the sea-shore, keeping
along which they had made their way to the ships.

Leaving Guadaloupe on the 10th, Columbus passed Mont Serrat and Antigua,
and, the weather becoming boisterous, anchored off an island, to which
he gave the name of Santa Cruz. Here a boat was sent on shore, and the
crew visited a village, deserted by the men, but secured a few women and
boys, most of them captives from other islands. On returning they saw a
canoe, the people in which--two of whom were women--were so entranced at
the sight of the ships that the boat got close up before they perceived
it. The Indians now attempted to escape, but, finding their retreat cut
off, they plied their bows and arrows so rapidly that two Spaniards were
wounded, the women fighting as fiercely as the men. Though the canoe
was upset, the savages still, while swimming, discharged their arrows at
their foes. They were, however, captured and brought on board, some of
them wounded.

One of them was evidently their Queen. She was accompanied by her son,
a young man strongly made, with a frowning brow and a lion's face. The
hair of these savages was long and coarse, and their eyes were encircled
with paint, so as to give them a hideous expression.

Though captives in chains, they still retained their defiant air. They
were afterwards carried prisoners to Spain. One of the Spaniards died
of a wound from a poisoned arrow shot by one of the women.

After this Columbus reached a group of upwards of fifty small islands,
to which the name of Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins was
given. Continuing his course, he came off a beautiful island, covered
with forests and indented with fine havens. It is now known by the name
of Porto Rico. This was the island from which most of the captives who
had fled to the ships had been taken by the Caribs.

After run