for a favourable attack;
nor had they long to wait, for Ojeda, accompanied by ten men, came on
shore again on Saturday as indifferently as though nothing had happened.
Gil Gonzalez affected to receive them in a friendly manner, but no sooner
had they reached the village than the Indians fell upon them, killing
Ojeda and several others, while the remainder barely succeeded in reaching
the caravel. The Indians even went out in canoes to attack the vessel but
were repulsed, and the Spaniards, setting sail, put to sea.

The defenceless friars remained, however, and at Chiribichi the priest,
while vesting to say mass, and the lay-brother were both killed by the
people of the cacique Maraguey and the convent was burned. So great was
the fury of the Indians that they even killed a horse with which the monks
worked in their garden.

The news of this massacre reaching Hispaniola from the Spaniards at
Cubagua, the royal Audiencia at once despatched a small force under
Gonzalo de Ocampo to punish the Indians, and the disheartening news of
these turbulent events was the greeting that met Las Casas on his arrival
at Puerto Rico. Knowing that Ocampo's armada would touch there on its way
to the Pearl Coast, he determined to await its arrival, where in fact
Ocampo appeared within a few days. Las Casas had been a neighbour of his
in other days and, though he knew that his treatment of the Indians did
not differ from that of the other colonists, he held him in some esteem.
He showed Ocampo his cedulas with the royal signature, which prohibited
any Spaniards from landing, against his will, in the territory granted to
him, and he formally required him to desist from his errand of vengeance.
Ocampo answered that, while he did not refuse obedience to the royal
commands, he was in this instance acting under the orders of the royal
Audiencia and was obliged to carry out the instructions he had received;
the responsibility lay with the Audiencia, which would protect him from
any consequences following the execution of its mandate.

Seeing that Ocampo was not to be stopped, Las Casas resolved to go himself
to Hispaniola, show his powers to the Audiencia, and exact the recall of
the fleet. Meanwhile he placed his colonists amongst the various planters
of Puerto Rico, who were glad enough to welcome labourers, who were scarce
in the island. This decision of Las Casas was a most mistaken one and was
the outcome of an error of judgment which