stopher and Bartholomew Columbus and
Ojeda respectively. These three divisions attacked the Indians
simultaneously from different points, Ojeda throwing his cavalry upon
them, riding them down, and cutting them to pieces. Drums were beaten
and trumpets blown; the guns were fired from the cover of the trees; and
a pack of bloodhounds, which had been sent out from Spain with
Bartholomew, were let loose upon the natives and tore their bodies to
pieces. It was an easy and horrible victory. The native force was
estimated by Columbus at one hundred thousand men, although we shall
probably be nearer the mark if we reduce that estimate by one half.

The powers of hell were let loose that day into the Earthly Paradise.
The guns mowed red lines of blood through the solid ranks of the natives;
the great Spanish horses trod upon and crushed their writhing bodies, in
which arrows and lances continually stuck and quivered; and the ferocious
dogs, barking and growling, seized the naked Indians by the throat,
dragged them to the ground, and tore out their very entrails . . . .
Well for us that the horrible noises of that day are silent now; well for
the world that that place of bloodshed and horror has grown green again;
better for us and for the world if those cries had never been heard, and
that quiet place had never received a stain that centuries of green
succeeding springtides can never wash away.

It was some time before this final battle that the convalescence of the
Admiral was further assisted by the arrival of four ships commanded by
Antonio Torres, who must have passed, out of sight and somewhere on the
high seas, the ships bearing Buil and Margarite back to Spain. He
brought with him a large supply of fresh provisions for the colony, and a
number of genuine colonists, such as fishermen, carpenters, farmers,
mechanics, and millers. And better still he brought a letter from the
Sovereigns, dated the 16th of August 1494, which did much to cheer the
shaken spirits of Columbus. The words with which he had freighted his
empty ships had not been in vain; and in this reply to them he was warmly
commended for his diligence, and reminded that he enjoyed the unshaken
confidence of the Sovereigns. They proposed that a caravel should sail
every month from Spain and from Isabella, bearing intelligence of the
colony and also, it was hoped, some of its products. In a general letter
addressed to the colony the settlers were re