ng on in his absence. The gentle creature referred again
with tears to the massacre at La Navidad, and again asserted that
innocence of any hand in it which Columbus had happily never doubted; and
he told him also of the secret league against Isabella, of his own
refusal to join it, and of the attacks to which he had consequently been
subjected. It must have been an affecting meeting for these two, who
represented the first friendship formed between the Old World and the
New, who were both of them destined to suffer in the impact of
civilisation and savagery, and whose names and characters were happily
destined to survive that impact, and to triumph over the oblivion of
centuries.

So long as the native population remained hostile and unconquered by
kindness or force, it was impossible to work securely at the development
of the colony; and Columbus, however regretfully, had come to feel that
circumstances more or less obliged him to use force. At first he did not
quite realise the gravity of the position, and attempted to conquer or
reconcile the natives in little groups. Guarionex, the cacique of the
Vega Real, was by gifts and smooth words soothed back into a friendship
which was consolidated by the marriage of his daughter with Columbus's
native interpreter. It was useless, how ever, to try and make friends
with Caonabo, that fierce irreconcilable; and it was felt that only by
stratagem could he be secured. No sooner was this suggested than Ojeda
volunteered for the service. Amid the somewhat slow-moving figures of
our story this man appears as lively as a flea; and he dances across our
pages in a sensation of intrepid feats of arms that make his great
popularity among the Spaniards easily credible to us. He did not know
what fear was; he was always ready for a fight of any kind; a quarrel in
the streets of Madrid, a duel, a fight with a man or a wild beast,
a brawl in a tavern or a military expedition, were all the same to him,
if only they gave him an opportunity for fighting. He had a little
picture of the Virgin hung round his neck, by which he swore, and to
which he prayed; he had never been so much as scratched in all his
affrays, and he believed that he led a charmed life. Who would go out
against Caonabo, the Goliath of the island? He, little David Ojeda, he
would go out and undertake to fetch the giant back with him; and all he
wanted was ten men, a pair of handcuffs, a handful of trinkets, horse