"Sirs," he said, when they had
done, "here is my brother, Don Bartholomew, who will take
order. He is as myself. For Christopherus Columbus, he
is ill, and must be ill awhile."
The sixth day came Guacanagari, and sat in the room and
talked sorrowfully. Caonabo, Gwarionex, Behechio, Cotubanama,
said, "Were these or were these not gods, yet would
they fight!"
The Admiral said, "The Future is the god. But there
are burrs on his skirt!"
Guacanagari at last would depart. He stood beside the
bed and the silver-haired great cacique from heaven. The
Admiral put forth a lean, knotted, powerful hand and laid
it on the brown, slim, untoiled hand. "I wish peace," he
said. "My brother Bartholomew and I will do what we
can do to gain it. Good peace, true peace!"
Without the room, I asked the cacique about Guarin. He
was gone, he said, to the mountains. He would not stay
with Guacanagari, and he would not go to Caonabo or
Gwarionex. "All old things and ways are broken," said
Guacanagari. "All our life is broken. I do not know what
we have done. The women sit and weep. And I, too, sometimes
I weep!"
The seventh day came in Alonso de Ojeda from St.
Thomas.
The Viceroy and the Adelantado and Ojeda talked alone
together in the Viceroy's house. But next day was held a
great council, all our principal men attending.
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