Ojeda's own men closed in upon him, bound Caonaba hand and
foot, behind their leader, and thus the chief was taken into the Spanish
settlement. The conspiracy fell to pieces and the colony was saved.
Caonaba showed no respect to Colon or any one else in the camp while a
prisoner there, except Ojeda. When Ojeda entered he promptly rose to his
feet. They had many conversations together, and Caonaba, who evidently
rather admired the stratagem by which he had been captured, agreed with
his captor that Ojeda was The Man Who Could Not Die.
NOTE
The career of Alonso de Ojeda is one of the most picturesque and
adventurous in early Spanish-American history, and his character is
typical of the young Spanish cavalier of the age just following the
discovery of America. The episodes here used, with many others quite as
dramatic, are described at length in Irving's "Life of Columbus."
THE ESCAPE
Why do you come here, white men, white men?
Why do you bend the knee
When your priests before you, singing, singing,
Lift the cross, the cross of tree?
Flashing in the sunlight, rainbows waking,
Move your mighty oars keeping time.
Sailors heave your anchors, chanting, chanting
Some strange and mystic rime.
Pearls and gold we bring you, feathers of our wild birds,
Glowing in the sunshine like flowers.
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