been loaned him for the expenses of the undertaking. Many little
articles, also, were presented to him, to be used as gifts to the
natives; and away he sailed to start the new work and to find in the
Indies, he hoped, the fifty Knights of the Golden Spur. We shall see how
he succeeded.

CHAPTER VII

THE PEARL COAST

If you look on the map of South America, you will see up in the
northeast corner the island of Trinidad, and close by, indenting the
coast of the mainland, the Gulf of Para. Stretching west from about this
point was what was called the Pearl Coast, and it was in this region
that was situated the land that had been granted to Las Casas for his
company of the Knights of the Golden Spur. Now while he was in Spain
events had taken place in this territory that made the founding of a
colony very difficult indeed.

Both the Franciscans and the Dominicans had been trying to do missionary
work among the natives, as we know, and both orders had monasteries
there. For a time all went well, until a Spaniard named Ojeda, engaged
in the pearl fishery, had come over from the island of Cubagua, seeking
slaves.

This pearl fishing was carried on by use of the Indians in a most
heartless manner. The poor creatures were kept swimming about under
water from early morning until sunset. When they came up with their
nets, in which they put the oysters,--from the shells of which the
pearls were taken,--if they stopped to rest, a man in a boat, who kept
rowing about all day for this purpose, drove them in again with blows,
sometimes seizing them by the hair and throwing them in. They were half
starved, their only food being the oysters or fish and a very little
bread. At night they were put in the stocks to prevent them from running
away. The consequence of such treatment was that they did not live long,
and it was necessary to supply the places of those that died with
others. For this reason slave raids were very frequent.

This Ojeda, then, came over to the mainland to get more slaves, and
carried off a large number of the Indians. Of course this made the
natives very angry and they resolved to kill him and the white men with
him.

Because Ojeda had stopped at the Dominican convent the natives supposed
that the monks were his friends. And when the slave hunter came ashore
again a few days afterward the infuriated Indians killed him and his
men, and a week later they attacked the convent and killed the monks
also.