Historical Tales, Vol. III | Page 6

frame concealed much strength,
reached from his saddle, seized the astonished chief, and by a great
exertion of muscular force lifted him from the ground and swung him
up on the horse. The warriors, who beheld this act with sudden
suspicion, had no time to use their weapons before the Spaniards had
put spur to their horses and dashed off into the forest. Two of them
rode on each side of Ojeda, to prevent the captive throwing himself
from the horse. Threatened by their swords and with his hands clasped
in those fatal bracelets, Caonabo was forced to submit, and was carried
by his captors for many miles through the heart of his own country to
Fort Isabella, a stronghold which Columbus had built at a site on the

sea-coast, fronting a bay in which all his vessels could ride in safety.
Here the bold Ojeda, as the culmination of his daring enterprise,
delivered his captive to Columbus, and he was locked up in a secure
cell.
As the story goes, the brave cacique had a greater admiration for
courage than anything else in the world, and instead of hating Ojeda for
the crafty way in which he had been captured, he seemed to hold him in
high esteem as the bravest of the Spaniards. Whenever Ojeda appeared
in his cell he would rise and courteously salute him, while he treated
the visits of Columbus with haughty disregard. So far as the captive
cacique could make himself understood, the high rank of Columbus
was nought to him. He had no proof that he was a man of courage,
while the manner in which Ojeda had captured him showed him to be a
brave man. To the bold Carib courage was the first of virtues and the
only one worthy of respect.
The poor Indian suffered the fate of most of his countrymen who had to
do with the Spanish invaders. Put on board ship and sent as a prize of
valor to Spain, the unfortunate chief died on the voyage, perhaps from a
broken heart, or as a result of the change from his free forest life to the
narrow confines of a fifteenth-century ship.
The life of Ojeda after that date was one full of adventure, in which he
distinguished himself as much by rashness as by valor. In 1499 he was
put in command of an exploring expedition and sent out from Spain,
one of his companions being Amerigo Vespucci, he whose first name
gained the immemorial honor of being given to the great western
continent. In this voyage Ojeda discovered part of the continent of
South America, which he called Venezuela, or Little Venice, a name
suggested by an Indian village built on piles in the water. Eight years
later Ojeda sought to plant a colony in New Andalusia, but the natives
there proved too bold and hostile for him, and he failed to subject them
to his authority.
Many were his adventures, all of them characterized by a rash daring
like that he had shown in the capture of Caonabo. When at length he
died, he was buried, in response to his own request, in the doorway of

the Franciscan monastery in the city of Santo Domingo, so that all who
entered that place of worship should walk over his grave.

THE EARLY DAYS OF A FAMOUS CAVALIER.
The island elysium which Columbus had discovered, and of which he
wrote and conversed in the most glowing terms, seemed like a
fairy-land of promise to the people of Spain, and hundreds of
adventurers soon crossed the seas, hopeful of winning gold and ready
for deeds of peril and daring in that wonderful unknown land. Some of
them were men of wealth, who were eager to add to their riches, but the
most of them had little beyond their love of adventure and their thirst
for gold to carry them across the seas, needy but bold soldiers and
cavaliers who were ready for any enterprise, however perilous, that
might promise them reward. The stories of many of these men are full
of romantic interest, and this is especially the case with one of them,
the renowned Hernando Cortez.
We propose here to deal with the interesting early history of this most
famous of the New World conquerors. The son of a Spanish captain, of
good family, his buoyant spirit and frolicsome humor led him into
many wild escapades while still a boy. The mystery and romance of the
strange land beyond the sea and the chance to win gold and glory which
it offered were fascinating to a spirit like his, and he was prevented
from taking part in an expedition when but seventeen years of age only
by an unlucky accident. As he was scaling a wall one