BEING relieved of immediate fear, though still uneasy for the future,
the boys endeavored to make the Indians understand that they wished
to go to the mountain range to the northeast, visible from where they
stood. And, at Juan’s suggestion, Diego persuaded the tattooed men,
afterwards discovered to be priests, or Butios, to climb higher up to
where a better view of the ocean was visible.
There he searched the horizon, and to his joy saw the _Pinta_ still
making her way to the rocky headland, her full spread of sail giving
her the appearance of a monstrous bird. Diego pointed her out to the
Butios, and told them it was on her that he and Juan had come out of
the sky.
This was evidently a satisfactory and gratifying proof of the origin
of their visitors, and presently the cacique was assisted up the
mountain-side, that he, too, might look on the marvel, and after that
the whole assemblage came up, and felt themselves blessed with the
extraordinary sight.
Then Diego explained that he and Juan must go down to the beach
and wait for the coming of the ship, and promised the Butios great
quantities of bells and beads if they would take them thither. And, to
give emphasis to his words, he and Juan showed in their hands the beads
and bells they had with them.
Well, the Butios marvelled, and showed in many ways that they fully
comprehended the meaning of Diego’s words and gestures, and that it
would fill them with great joy to have more of the bells, together with
some of the beads; but they also made it plain that they were not at
all disposed to part with their heavenly visitors. And they gave Diego
to understand that, much as it grieved them to cross their cherished
visitors, they yet could not help but take them with them to the
interior of the island, pointing to the southeast as they spoke.
“We’ll have to go,” said Diego. “I don’t believe they will hurt us at
all, and we will be safe enough. From what I can make out, this cacique
is only an inferior one, and he would not dare to let us go without
showing us to his superior, whom they call Caonabo. And they talk of
Cibao, which I think must be the Zipangu of which the admiral has said
so much, for you can see what quantities of gold these people have.”
“But if we go,” said Juan, “we shall lose the ship.”
“Well,” said Diego, “we have no choice but to go. What I meant,
however, was this: Let us pretend to go willingly, and so put them off
their guard until we can find the opportunity to slip away.”
“That is it,” said Juan, “and while we are with them we can exchange
our bells and beads for gold, and so return to the ship loaded with it.”
It was the best plan they could devise, and worked better than well,
so far as the exchange of their bells for gold was concerned; for when
Diego took up some of the gold ornaments of the men and showed his
interest in them, they were offered to him with a generous willingness
that asked for no return.
Neither he nor Juan would take advantage of the generosity, however,
but gave in return the glass beads which they had. They would have
given them all away had not the cacique interposed, making them
understand that he wished some saved for the cacique Caonabo, and
telling them that if gold was desired by them they had only to wait to
obtain all they could wish.
The boys would have preferred to get their booty at once, but yielded,
thinking that what they had was enough to make them rich. How they
wished they could communicate with Martin Alonzo, and let him know that
they had at last discovered that Zipangu, the land of gold, for which
they had sought so long and at last so hopelessly!
That was not to be just yet, however, for the cacique gave orders for
a return, not merely down the mountain, as it turned out, but to the
place they had come from, putting the boys in the especial care of
the Butios, who proved a faithful guard over them, and watched them
jealously. Not, as it seemed, that they feared an escape, but that they
held them so precious.
As soon as the boys settled to the conviction that escape at present
was quite out of the question, they remembered that they were hungry,
and conveyed that information to the Butios, who no sooner understood
it than they called a halt, and procured them not only cakes of maize
flour and roasted yuca, but brought them for drink small calabashes of
a sort of liquid which they called cocoa, and which the boys found very
refreshing.
After that they went on again, and in the woods where the boys had
bathed, they stopped long enough to procure litters for the boys and
for the cacique, and in these the journey was continued.
At first they returned along the way the boys had just come; but in a
little while they turned to the south and crossed the mountains by an
easy pass, and presently could look down on a beautiful and fertile
valley. For half a day’s journey the whole party went together; but
coming then to a village of considerable size, a stop was made and the
party separated, scattering to their homes.
After that the progress they made was swifter, the party consisting
only of the cacique, ten of the Butios, and a body-guard of twenty
warriors, armed with war-clubs and long, heavy swords of some hard,
polished wood, showing that, however gentle the men might be with their
visitors, they had it in their natures to fight if there were occasion,
differing in this from the other Indians the boys had seen.
For several days they travelled, their fame preceding them and causing
their progress through the valley to be a sort of triumphal march. At
each village they were respectfully shown to the wondering inhabitants,
and the cacique occasionally favored the other caciques with a dance
to the music of the bells. And at each village it seemed to be known
that the visitors desired gold, for there was always awaiting them
either rings, bracelets, or what they learned to prefer, nuggets of
virgin gold. The nuggets were of various sizes, the largest being two
of the size of a hen’s egg, each.
Diego and Juan gave a bell to each cacique as they went along, and it
was manifest that the cacique considered himself very much favored and
overpaid in receiving such a treasure for his paltry gold. And it was
also plain that the Butios grudged each bell given away; not apparently
from any lack of generosity, but because they disliked to see the
favors of heaven made so common.
As the days passed and Diego became more familiar with the language, he
was enabled to relieve his mind on the one subject of their greatest
uneasiness. He discovered, without being obliged to ask the unpleasant
question, that the natives were not cannibals, and that they detested
their Carib neighbors as much as any one could.
The relief it was to the boys to learn this can hardly be imagined;
for it had not failed to cross their minds that they were being most
remarkably well fed and cared for, and that naturally suggested the
notion of being fattened for a purpose.
There still remained the uneasiness about the ship; but although they
had done all they could to make an opportunity to escape, they had not
yet succeeded. They would have lost trace of the passage of time, had
not Diego thought of making a notch on a stick with his knife to mark
each day.
The knives, by the way, were objects of great curiosity to the Indians,
who had never seen iron in any of its forms before, and who marvelled
greatly at the keenness of the blades. One of the warriors of their
guard wished to test the properties of the blade by running it across
his fingers; but Diego prevented him and displayed the sharpness of the
edge by slicing a banana in thin sections. Instead of curing the man
of his desire, however, it seemed to make him only more eager for his
own test, and Diego, shrugging his shoulders, let him suit himself. Of
course the knife cut his fingers, but, so far from being distressed by
it, the simple fellow seemed to feel that he was to be envied; and so
it appeared did the others, for they would all have cut themselves had
the boys been willing to permit them to do so.
It was not until the tenth day after starting on the journey that
they reached the village of the grand cacique, Caonabo. The boys were
curious to see a chief of whom they had heard so much during their
progress through his dominions, and they certainly were impressed by
the fact that instead of going out to meet them with his warriors, as
the other caciques had done, he merely sent a deputation to meet them
and conduct them to him.
The village was a large one and very populous, though not a whit more
civilized in appearance than any of the other villages, so that the
boys could not help wondering if the stories about Zipangu had not
been exaggerated by the travellers who had been there. Certainly there
was gold enough; but the palace was not roofed with it, and if it had
been--the palace being a mere hut--it would not have come to much.
The population was all out to gaze on the wonderful beings from the
skies, and they wore a great quantity of gold on their otherwise naked
bodies; but such was their respect for their cacique that none of them
dared make any advances to the strangers until they had had an audience
with him.
“I begin to be a little afraid of this Caonabo, of whom his own people
stand in such awe,” said Diego.
[Illustration: “OF COURSE THE KNIFE CUT HIS FINGERS.”]
“And I also,” said Juan; “but here we are, and we shall soon know what
he thinks of us. I hope he will think well enough of us to do us no
harm, but not well enough of us to keep us.”