CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 137 



but the magnanimous Esquivel was no sooner made 

 acquainted with the sufferings of his enemy, than he 

 forgot all his resentment. He immediately sent over 

 to Cuba, Pedro de Narvez, an officer of rank, to con- 

 duct Ojeda to Jamaica. Esquivel received him with 

 the tenderest sympathy, treated him, during his stay, 

 with every possible mark of distinction and respect, 

 and provided him with the means of a speedy and safe 

 conveyance to Hispaniola. It is pleasing to add, that 

 Ojeda was not ungrateful to his benefactor. 



Under such a man, it is reasonable to suppose that 

 the yoke of subjection sat light and easy on the na- 

 tives of Jamaica, and that the ravages of conquest 

 were restrained within the limits cf humanity. Ac- 

 cordingly, the Spanish historians bear the most ho- 

 nourable testimony to his virtuous and gentle admi- 

 nistration. " The affairs of Jamaica (says Herrera) 

 rf went on prosperously, because Juan de Esquivel 

 c< having brought the natives to submission tcithouf 

 any effusion of bloody they laboured in planting 

 cotton, and raising other commodities which yield- 

 ed great profit." This praise is the more valuable 

 because it is almost peculiar to Esquivel, who alone 

 seems to have been sensible of the abominable wic- 

 kedness cf visiting distant lands only to desolate them : 

 and of converting the Indians to Christianity by cut- 

 ting their throats. How many noble qualities, in 

 some of his contemporaries, were tarnished by cruelty 

 and rapine, or unhappily blended with a misguided 

 and frantic zeal for religion, that rendered their po 

 sessors still more remorseless than 



Vol. I. s 



(C 



(C 



