Guarionex Having Thus Concerted With His Caciques, One Of The Chiefest Among Them Being Desirous To Acquire Reputation, And Looking Upon The Enterprise As A Very Easy Matter, Fell On Before The Time Appointed, Not Being Astronomer Sufficient To Know The Exact Time Of Full Moon.

After a severe conflict, he was forced to fly for assistance and protection to Guarionex, who put him to death as he deserved, for having thus laid open the conspiracy and put the Christians on their guard.

The rebels were not a little mortified at this miscarriage of the Indian plot, for it was reported that it had been concerted with their privacy and consent, and they had therefore waited to see whether Guarionex might bring affairs to such a pass, that by joining with him they might be able to destroy the lieutenant. But perceiving that it failed of success, they considered themselves insecure in the province where they then were, and therefore went away to Xaragua, still proclaiming themselves the protectors of the Indians, whereas they were thieves in their actions and inclinations, having no regard to God or the opinion of the world, but following their own inordinate appetites. Every one stole or took away what he could, and their leader Roldan more than any of the rest, commanding every cacique to entertain him that could; and though he forbade the Indians from paying any tribute to the lieutenant, he exacted much more from them under pretence of acting as their defender, insomuch that from one cacique only, named Monicaotex, he received every three months a calabash full of pure gold, containing three marks or a pound and a half, and to make sure of him he detained his son and nephew as hostages. He who reads this must not wonder that we reduce the marks of gold to the measure of a calabash, which is here done to shew that the Indians dealt in all these cases by measure, as they never had any weights.

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