Many of them, less fortunate, perhaps, than those who were slain, being taken alive, were condemned to slavery.

Caonabo, however, who was besieging the fortress of St.Thomas at the time of the battle on the Vega Real, remained untaken.

The admiral resolved to secure the person of this cacique by treachery; and sent Ojeda (who afterwards became a conspicuous actor in the sad drama of conquest and depopulation in the West Indies) to cajole Caonabo into coming to a friendly meeting.

There are some curious instructions of Columbus's to Margarite in 1494, respecting a plot to take this formidable Caonabo.

They are as thoroughly base and treacherous as can well be imagined.