d by a
messenger who had been instructed to say what he wanted, for his orders to
be scrupulously obeyed; without the paper, the verbal message was shorn of
its authority, with the paper it commanded entire obedience. To forestall
excesses on the part of the soldiers, Las Casas hit upon the device of
sending a messenger ahead, carrying one of these papers, to tell the
Indians that the expedition was approaching and that he desired them to
have provisions ready and to vacate one part of their village which the
Spaniards might occupy. The messenger announced these dispositions, which
must be obeyed under pain of the Behique's displeasure, and the Spaniards,
on their arrival, invariably found everything prepared for them and free
quarters in which to lodge. Narvaez agreed to give strict orders to his
men to keep to their own part of the village, and any one who violated
this command or sought to mix with the Indians was punished.

At a village called Caonao, one of the characteristic pieces of
inexplicable cruelty, that so frequently occurred, took place. Before
reaching that town, the expedition had stopped to eat in a dry river bed
(barranca), where there was a quantity of soapstone on which the men
sharpened their weapons. Upon entering the town and before taking
possession of their quarters, they found some two thousand Indians
peaceably squatting about the square, after their fashion, curious to see
them and observe the movements of the wonderful horses at which they never
tired of looking. While the provisions which the Indians had got ready
were being distributed, somebody--it was never discovered who--without cause
or rhyme or reason suddenly ran amok, drew his sword, and began slashing
right and left amongst the defenceless natives, and, as though crazed, the
other soldiers fell to work in the same fashion, so that, before one half
the Indians realised what was happening, the place was piled with dead and
wounded. Narvaez looked on unmoved, but Las Casas, who was not in the
square when the massacre began, hearing what was afoot, rushed thither in
rage and despair to stop the slaughter. "What do you think of what our
Spaniards have done?" Narvaez coolly asked him, and the priest in a fury
replied: "To the devil with you and your Spaniards." He finally succeeded
in arresting the butchery, not forgetting, in the midst of all, to
administer baptism to the dying. His indignation on this occasion burst
all bounds