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Some officers of the expedition, and even Friar Boyle, advised that Guacanagari should be secured, till he had cleared himself in a more satisfactory manner from having a concern in the death of the Christians who had been left in his country.
It was a story of Caonabo, cacique of Maguana that ran into the great mountains of Cibao, that cacique of whom we had already heard as being like Caribs. Caonabo had sent quite secretly two of his brothers to Guacanagari. He had heard ill of the strangers and thought they were demons, not gods! He advised the cacique of Guarico to surprise them while they slept and slay them.
But there came a robbery, and since it was resisted, murder followed. This was a league from Guarico and from La Navidad. The slain Indian's companion escaping, told. This time Diego de Arana went to Guarico and Guacanagari. He took with him a rich present, and he showed how the guilty men were punished. "You do not slay them?" asked Guacanagari. Arana shook his head.
An affection had sprung between Guacanagari and Christopherus Columbus. So different they looked! and yet in the breast of each dwelled much guilelessness and the ability to wonder and revere.
Although he resented the intrusion of the Spaniards into the island he would not have dared to come and attack them there if they had obeyed the Admiral's orders and remained in the territory of Guacanagari; but when they came into his own country he had them in a trap, and it was easy for him to fall upon those foolish swaggering Spaniards and put them to death.
To be assured of the truth of this report, the cacique, whose name was Guacanagari, sent a canoe with some Indians and one Spaniard to make inquiry. These people went twenty leagues along the coast, and returned without being able to hear any thing of the Pinta; for which reason no credit was given to another Indian, who reported that he had seen that vessel a few days before.
He found a secure harbor and a good place for a settlement, But he thought it too far from the place where he expected to find a gold mine. On his return, he found the caravel he had sent out. As it was coasting along the island, a canoe had come out to it, with two Indians on board, one of whom was a brother of Guacanagari. This man begged the party to come and visit the cacique.
They said, as the others had done, that Guacanagari was wounded in the thigh and they, like the others, said they would go and summon him. The Spaniards made them some presents, and they, too, disappeared. Early the next morning the Admiral himself, with a party, including Dr. Chanca, went ashore.
But Columbus was unable to transact business himself, and James was manifestly of little use; the action was natural enough. In the early days of his convalescence he had another pleasant experience, in the shape of a visit from Guacanagari, who came to express his concern at the Admiral's illness, and to tell him the story of what had been going on in his absence.
The sixth day came Guacanagari, and sat in the room and talked sorrowfully. Caonabo, Gwarionex, Behechio, Cotubanama, said, "Were these or were these not gods, yet would they fight!" The Admiral said, "The Future is the god. But there are burrs on his skirt!" Guacanagari at last would depart. He stood beside the bed and the silver-haired great cacique from heaven.
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