South American Fights and Fighters | Page 8

was soon exhausted, and
finally it was evident that, as Encisco had not appeared with any
reënforcements or supplies, some one must go back to Hispaniola to
bring rescue to the party. Ojeda offered to do this himself. Giving the
charge of affairs at {16} San Sebastian to Francisco Pizarro, who
promised to remain there for fifty days for the expected help, he
embarked with Talavera.
Naturally Ojeda considered himself in charge of the ship; naturally
Talavera did not. Ojeda, endeavoring to direct things, was seized and
put in chains by the crew. He promptly challenged the whole crew to a
duel, offering to fight them two at a time in succession until he had
gone through the ship, of which he expected thereby to become the
master; although what he would have done with seventy dead pirates
on the ship is hard to see. The men refused this wager of battle, but
fortune favored this doughty little cavalier, for presently a great storm
arose. As neither Talavera nor any of the men were navigators or
seamen, they had to release Ojeda. He took charge. Once he was in
charge, they never succeeded in ousting him.
In spite of his seamanship, the caravel was wrecked on the island of
Cuba. They were forced to make their way along the shore, which was
then unsettled by Spain. Under the leadership of Ojeda the party
struggled eastward under conditions of extreme hardship. When they
were most desperate, Ojeda, who had appealed daily to his little picture
of the Virgin, which he always carried with him, and had not ceased to
urge the others to do likewise, made a vow to establish a shrine and

leave the picture at the first Indian village they came to if they got
succor there.
Sure enough, they did reach a place called Cueyabos, where they were
hospitably received by the Indians, and where Ojeda, fulfilling his vow,
erected a log hut, or shrine, in the recess of which he left, with much
regret, the picture of the Virgin which had accompanied {17} him on
his wanderings and adventures. Means were found to send word to
Jamaica, still under the governorship of Esquivel, whose head Ojeda
had threatened to cut off when he met him. Magnanimously forgetting
the purpose of the broken adventurer, Esquivel despatched a ship to
bring him to Jamaica. We may be perfectly sure that Ojeda said nothing
about the decapitation when the generous hearted Esquivel received
him with open arms. Ojeda with Talavera and his comrades were sent
back to Santo Domingo. There Talavera and the principal men of his
crew were tried for piracy and executed.
Ojeda found that Encisco had gone. He was penniless, discredited and
thoroughly downcast by his ill fortune. No one would advance him
anything to send succor to San Sebastian. His indomitable spirit was at
last broken by his misfortunes. He lingered for a short time in
constantly increasing ill health, being taken care of by the good
Franciscans, until he died in the monastery. Some authorities say he
became a monk; others deny it; it certainly is quite possible. At any rate,
before he died he put on the habit of the order, and after his death, by
his own direction, his body was buried before the gate, so that those
who passed through it would have to step over his remains. Such was
the tardy humility with which he endeavoured to make up for the
arrogance and pride of his exciting life.
IV. Enter One Vasco Nuñez de Balboa
Encisco, coasting along the shore with a large ship, carrying
reënforcements and loaded with provisions for the party, easily
followed the course of Ojeda's {18} wanderings, and finally ran across
the final remnants of his expedition in the harbor of Cartagena. The
remnant was crowded into a single small, unseaworthy brigantine under
the command of Francisco Pizarro.

Pizarro had scrupulously kept faith with Ojeda. He had done more. He
had waited fifty days, and then, finding that the two brigantines left to
him were not large enough to contain his whole party, by mutual
agreement of the survivors clung to the death-laden spot until a
sufficient number had been killed or had died to enable them to get
away in the two ships. They did not have to wait long, for death was
busy, and a few weeks after the expiration of the appointed time they
were all on board.
There is something terrific to the imagination in the thought of that
body of men sitting down and grimly waiting until enough of them
should die to enable the rest to get away! What must have been the
emotions that filled their breasts as the days dragged on? No one knew
whether the result of the delay would