WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES- — VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 42I 



Chapter XV 



Of What the Traitor Did in Margarita. 



1214. That night Lope de Aguirre had all the people get out on 

 the beach, for them all to sleep there, and he issued special orders 

 that no one was to stir, not even to make water, for if they stirred 

 one step he would kill them, and so he and some 50 of his guard with 

 harquebusses and daggers kept watching us ; and when the dawn 

 watch came, he took his soldiers and men back to the brigantines ; 

 and when it was 2 hours after daybreak the Governor of Margarita 

 arrived, Don Juan de Villandrando, and the Alcaldes and Alguacil 

 Mayor and other leading citizens to see Lope de Aguirre and his 

 people to escort them to the city and present them with what they had. 

 As soon as the Governor and the other citizens had arrived, he went 

 up on the brigantines. Lope de Aguirre had all the harquebussiers 

 below decks with their guns loaded and ready. The Governor inquired 

 who was the commander of those gentlemen who were there ; the 

 rebel Lope de Aguirre came up to the Governor, knelt before him, 

 and taking his hands told him that he was the commander chosen 

 by all those gentlemen who had left Peru with Gov. Pedro de Ursua 

 to explore the Rio Marafion and Provinces of El Dorado, and that 

 Gov. Pedro de Ursua had died on that river, and that he must give 

 an account of what had been discovered and observed in that country, 

 to the Viceroy, Marques de Canete, who was then Viceroy of the 

 Kingdoms of Peru, and that all he asked of that country was food, 

 which was what he needed most, and that in any case he had the 

 wherewithal to pay for it. The Governor replied that his visit and 

 that of all those gentlemen was solely to escort them to the city and 

 put them up there and set what they had at their service, and so 

 he took Lope de Aguirre as his guest. And Lope de Aguirre kissed 

 his hands for this favor and at once said : "Gentlemen, take your 

 harquebusses and fire a salvo for the Governor and these gentlemen." 

 And so they all took out their harquebusses ; they would be 200 in 

 number, for as for their companions among the 370, the tyrant had 

 murdered and disposed of 100 on the occasions mentioned, after 

 having murdered the Governor at Epiphany ; and this inhuman crea- 

 ture had also murdered and disposed of the 500 Negroes and Indians 

 of the service contingent, cruelly killing many of them and leaving 

 170 at the mercy of the Caribs. And so they fired a fine salvo for 

 the Governor and the other residents, of all the harquebusses ; and 

 as soon as they had fired the salvo, they all reloaded with powder and 

 shot, for such were the tyrant's orders, as will be told in the following- 

 chapter. 



