that when the mariners, whom Ovando fent to found his new colony of Puerto de Plata, touched at a spot near to where the above transaction took place, the natives should have confidered them as invaders and have attacked them accordingly. In the conflict that enfued nine Spaniards were killed, and the news of their flaughter being brought to the Governor, he ordered war to be declared,-war, according to the phrase of the time, "of fire and blood." From all the Spanish citadels forces were fent under various captains, and Juan de Efquivel was named Captain-general of the force, which amounted to four hundred men. On the arrival of this body in Higuey, the province of Hispaniola adjacent to the island of Saona, and which had been concerned in the original revolt, the Indians feem to have behaved with sufficient bravery; but finding that their naked bodies and childish weapons could in no way compete with well-clad, well-armed men, they foon abandoned open fighting and fled to the mountains. From a war it degenerated into a hunt. Many of the Indians who were taken had both their hands cut off, and were told by the Spaniards to carry those letters to their lords, i. e. to show what mutilation they had fuffered, that it might inspire general terror. Nor was it only by

fubdued.

twos or threes that they fuffered: on one occafion fix or seven hundred prisoners were put to the fword at once. Haraffed in every way the poor Indians at last fought to make terms; and it was agreed that as a condition of peace they should Higuey conftruct in their territory a great manufactory of Cafabi bread for the Spaniards. They were not, however, to be required to come with the bread to St. Domingo, which service they were very glad to avoid.

Amongst the chiefs who came to do reverence to the Captain-general was Cotubano the principal Cacique of those parts. He was a man of great bodily force and courage, and was fo esteemed that the Captain-general did not think it derogatory to exchange names with him. This practice of exchanging names, meant for a sign of perpetual love and amity, was an Indian cuftom. The perfons fo exchanging names were called "Guatiaos;" and I imagine the relationship was confidered in somewhat of the fame light as that of fofter brethren amongst the Irish. It shows a degree of refinement which we might not have expected; but it is not, perhaps, in the affections that civili-· zation finds the most to change and to develope.

The war with the inhabitants of Higuey was thus fuccessfully brought to a clofe; welcome

news for Ovando in whofe favour it may be noted, that he is said to have given such instructions to the Captain-general as showed that he wished for peace; though peace was only arrived at through fuch fearful cruelties.

The Governor's greatest difficulty, at this period of his administration, was to know how to fupport the Caftilian population; and this difficulty would have been felt still more urgently but for the great mortality we have mentioned, and the return of many men in thofe veffels which were sent back to Spain in the fleet that perished. The ftores which Ovando had brought with him from Spain were now exhaufted; and the Spaniards began to fuffer greatly from hunger. They were compelled to eat all manner of uncleanly things. The Indians alfo fuffered from this famine, for they had not put in the usual crops (their fuicidal mode, as we have seen before, of getting rid of their Spanish visitors) and in confequence of the famine, it is ftated, new diseases made their appearance both amongst the native population and the Spaniards.

Another great difficulty for the Governor was, that the Indians would have little or no communication with the Christians. Ovando ftated that Spaniards. this averfion of the Indians was the refult of the

Indians

avoid the

freedom which had been declared for them. But Las Casas with more probability afferts that the Indians never knew anything about this declaration of their freedom; and that they shunned the Spaniards as naturally as fparrows the fparrowhawk. It is easy to see that this conduct of the Indians would appear to prefent a great hindrance to their converfion, a circumstance which Ovando did not omit to mention to Los Reyes when he laid the matter before them. He would probably take care also to point out the difficulty of procuring gold, or making profperous fettlements, while the Indians thus ftood apart.

The Catholic Sovereigns, in a reply dated the 20th December, 1503, direct Ovando to compel the Indians to have dealings with the Spaniards, and to work for them at fuch wages as he shall think fit. Los Reyes further order, that the Indians fhall work under the guidance of their Caciques; that they shall go and hear mass and be instructed in the Faith-and that they shall do all these things" as free perfons, for fo they are." Ferdinand and Ifabella were great Princes, and very fagacious ones; but it was beyond their power and their wisdom to combine fuch orders with freedom for their Indians. Ovando works out the system in this way: he diftributes Indians

1503.

Fatal or

der of Los Reyes.

Climax of repartimiento.

amongst the Caftilians, giving to one man fifty, to another a hundred, and so on; with a deed that ran thus, "To you, fuch a one, is given an encomienda "of fo many Indians with fuch a Cacique, and

you are to teach them the things of our facred "Catholic Faith."* The word encomienda which will now be more frequently used than repartimiento, was a term belonging to the Military Orders, correfponding to our word, commandery, or preceptory; and this term naturally enough came in with the government in the Indies, of men who held authority in those orders, fuch as Bobadilla and Ovando. As regards the implied condition of teaching the Indians the "facred Catholic Faith," it was no more attended to from the firft, than any formal clause in a deed which is fuppofed by the parties concerned to be the mere fringe of the matter; and, indeed, to be put in chiefly to gratify the lawyers.

We have now come to the climax of the repartimiento fyftem. That which Bobadilla did illegally, is now done with proper formalities on parchment and many a dreary day will intervene

* A vos fulano fe os encomiendan tantos Indios, en tal Cacique, y enseñaldes las cofas de nuestra santa Fé Catolica. Herrera, Hift. de las Indias, dec. 1, lib. 5, cap. 11.