Night came and the nine men
had not returned. The crew were naturally anxious to leave the island
before its man-eating population returned, but the majority were willing
to await their lost companions. Next day Alonzo de Ojeda, who said he
was not afraid of cannibals, led a search party clear across the island,
but without success; not until the third anxious day had passed did the
gold seekers get back to the ship. They had paid dearly for their
adventure, having been utterly lost in a tangled forest, without food,
torn and scratched by brambles, and fearing all the time that the fleet
would give them up for dead and sail without them.
A week having now been passed among the cannibals, Columbus decided to
give up gold-hunting and go and greet the colony at La Navidad. His
captives told him that the mainland lay south, and had he not grown
anxious about the men he had left the year before, he might have sailed
south and found South America; but instead he headed north, stopping
sometimes at intermediate islands. Once again they tried capturing some
natives whom they saw on the shore, but these Carib women were wonderful
archers, and a number of them who managed to upset their canoe and swim
for liberty shot arrows as they swam. Two of the Spaniards were thus
wounded.
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