If I do not--the loss will not be very great."
"I should not like to lose you," said the Admiral, with his hand on the
young man's shoulder. "Go, if you will,--but do not sacrifice your own
life if you can help it."
Ojeda had faith in his talisman, and he also believed that if any man
could go into Caonaba's territory and come back alive, he was that man.
He knew that he himself, in the place of the chief, would respect a man
whom he had not been able to beat.
With ten soldiers he rode up into the mountains, his blood leaping with
the wild joy of an adventure as great as any in the Song of the Cid. To
be sure, Caonaba would not in his mountain camp have any such army as
when he surrounded the fort, for then he commanded whole tribes of
allies. In case of coming to blows Ojeda believed that he and his men
with their superior weapons could cut their way out. Still, the odds
were beyond anything that he had ever heard of.
He found the Carib chief, and began by trying diplomacy. He said that
his master, the Guamaquima or chief of the Spaniards, had sent him with
a present. Would he not consent to make a visit to the colony, with a
view of becoming the Admiral's ally and friend? If he would, he should
be presented with the bell of the chapel, the voice of the church, the
wonder of Hispaniola.
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