ever, said, "that
Guarionex was a good man, and deserved well at his hands, for he had given
him many royal gifts when he came to him, and had taught him and his wife
to join in choral songs and to dance, of which he made no little account,
and for which he was grateful: wherefore, he would be party to no treaty
to desert Guarionex, since he had fled to him, and he had pledged himself
to take care of the fugitive; and would rather suffer all extremities than
give detractors a cause for speaking ill, to say that he had delivered up
his guest." The assemblage of the people being dismissed, Maiobanex
informed his guest that he would stand by him to the last.
THEIR CAPTURE.
The fugitive cacique, however, finding that Maiobanex's people were
ill-disposed towards him, quitted, of his own accord, their territory; but
by so doing, he was not enabled to save his generous host, who, with his
family, was surprized and taken; and Guarionex himself being shortly
afterwards captured and put in chains at Fort Concepcion, the two caciques
probably shared the same prison. Thus concludes a story, which, if it had
been written by some Indian Plutarch, and the names had been more easy to
pronounce, might have taken its just place amongst the familiar and
household stories which we tell our children, to make them see the beauty
of great actions.
CHAPTER IX.
COLUMBUS'S THIRD VOYAGE.
A good starting-point for that important part of the narrative which comes
next--namely, the discovery of the American continent by Columbus--will be
a recital of the first clause in the instructions given by Ferdinand and
Isabella to the admiral, in the year 1497, previously to his undertaking
his third voyage--a voyage which, though not to be compared to his first
one, is still very memorable, on account of the discoveries he made, and
the sufferings he experienced in the course of it.
The first clause of the instructions is to the effect, that the Indians of
the islands are to be brought into peace and quietude, being reduced into
subjection "benignantly;" and also, as the principal end of the conquest,
that they be converted to the sacred Catholic Faith, and have the holy
Sacraments administered to them.
It will be needless to recount the vexations of that "much-enduring man,"
Columbus, before his embarkation. Suffice it to say, that he set sail from
the port of San Lucar on the 30th of May, 1498, with six vessels, and two
hundred
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