entirely opposed to work. The governor of Cuba, particularly, was fond of the traffic, for it was safe and lucrative. Though a representative of royal authority in America, he was as ready as any irresponsible adventurer to break the royal command. During this same year of 1516, a vessel from Santiago had loaded with natives and provisions at the Guanaja Islands, and had returned to port. While the captain and crew were ashore for a carouse, the captives burst open the hatches, overpowered the nine men who had been left on guard, and sailed away midst the frantic gesticulations of the captain on shore. Reaching their islands in safety, they there encountered a brigantine with twenty-five Spaniards lying in wait for captives. Attacking them boldly, the savages drove them off toward Darien, and then burned the ship in which they themselves had made their enforced voyage to Cuba.
As a matter of course this atrocious conduct on the part of the savages demanded exemplary punishment. To this end two vessels were immediately despatched with soldiers who fell upon the inhabitants of Guanaja, put many to the sword, and carried away five hundred captives, beside securing gold to the value of twenty thousand pesos de oro.
Happy in the thought of engaging in an occupation so profitable, the chivalrous one hundred cheerfully adventured their Darien gold in a similar voyage, fitting out two vessels for the purpose, and choosing for their commander Francisco Hernandez de Córdoba, now a wealthy planter of Santi Espíritu.[1]
- ↑ In the memorial of Antonio Velazquez, successor of the adelantado, Diego Velazquez, Memorial del negocio de D. Antonio Velazquez de Bazan, in Mendoza, Col. Doc. Inéd., x. 80-6, taken from the archives of the Indies, the credit of this expedition is claimed wholly for the governor. Indeed, Velazquez himself repeatedly asserts, as well as others, that the expedition was made at his cost. But knowing the man as we do, and considering the claims of others, it is safe enough to say that the governor did not invest much money in it. The burden doubtless fell on Córdoba, who was aided, as some think, by his associates, Cristóbal Morante and Lope Ochoa de Caicedo, in making up what the men of Darien lacked, Torquemada, i. 349, notwithstanding the claims for his fraternity of Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., i. Ogilby, Hist. Am., 76,
