Provisions Became At Length So Scarce, That Even The
Sick Were Often Reduced To One Egg Each, And A Pot Of Boiled Spanish Pease
Among Five.
The want of proper medicines added greatly to the distress;
for though some had been brought along with the expedition, they did not
agree with all constitutions; and, what was still worse, they had no
medical person to attend upon the sick.
Many well-born men, who had never
been accustomed to such hardships, being sick and starving, and without
all hope of relief, sunk under their situation, and died almost of despair.
Afterwards, when the town of Isabella was abandoned, it was currently
reported that dreadful noises were heard in the place, so that for a long
while no one durst venture to go that way.
To add to his affliction, the admiral received intelligence from Fort St
Thomas, that all the Indians had abandoned their towns, and that Caunabo,
the cacique of one of the provinces, was making preparations to reduce the
fort. The admiral sent immediately a reinforcement of seventy of the
healthiest of his men to the fort, escorting some beasts of burden, laden
with arms and provisions. He likewise ordered Alonso de Ojedo to take the
field with as many men as were able to march, leaving only the sick and
the mechanics behind; desiring him to march about the country,
particularly the Royal Plain, where there were many caciques and an
innumerable multitude of Indians; intending to intimidate the natives by a
display of the Spanish force, and to accustom the Spaniards to use the
provisions of the country, as their own were nearly spent.
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