WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 423 



to go with 17 harquebussiers and capture this Fray Francisco Monte- 

 sinos' ship, and told him to kill the friar and cut off his head and 

 pull off his skin to make a drum with, to see if a drum or box with 

 a friar's skin would bring him good luck. And so with these orders 

 Capt. Diego de Mongiiia with his 17 harquebussiers set out at once 

 in a boat belonging to a resident of Margarita by name Niebla in 

 which he went along thq coast bartering and trading, and a Negro 

 pilot of this Niebla, who knew where this friar was. And at the 

 close of a day and a half's navigation on the sea, God inspired him 

 and his soldiers, as they reflected on the rebel's cruelties, evil deeds, 

 and treacheries ; and so they hoisted His Majesty's banner and went 

 on to notify Fray Francisco Montesinos, and came to where his 

 ship was, and could have taken it if they had kept the same evil 

 intentions with which they had started out, for there was no resistance 

 whatever in it ; all they found was two cabin boys stretched out on 

 the beach and two friars, companions of the Provincial. And they 

 told them how they had been sent by the rebel Lope de Aguirre to 

 seize that ship, and that the rebel was staying at Margarita and that 

 he had sent them in his place, for them to murder Fray Francisco 

 Montesinos, since he needed the ship to sail immediately for Nombre 

 de Dios and travel from there to the Kingdoms of Peru ; he was 

 staying there with 200 harquebussiers (Marg. : plus 70 soldiers) 

 having captured the city and taken possession of it ; and so we have 

 gone over to the service of His Majesty to bring word inland for the 

 Father Provincial Fray Francisco Montesinos to go out and get 

 people together and prepare to go to the mainland from there, so 

 that they might learn of the rebel's cruelties and treacheries, and how- 

 he had captured Margarita, so that they might make preparations 

 and take up arms to defend their country, for he was the most cruel 

 monster that ever mother bore. They sent the Provincial word at 

 once ; he was 2 leagues inland but he came quickly and embraced 

 them all and put on his vestments and said Mass and distributed 

 the Consecrated Host among them all, giving them communion, and 

 took their oath on the consecrated altar that that was the truth, what 

 they had said and what they had done ; and they said it was, for they 

 were not accustomed to tell lies but the truth in a matter to which 

 they attributed so much importance ; and that accordingly they ren- 

 dered obedience to him in the name of His Majesty and his Royal 

 Judges and in his name, that he should give them what was necessary 

 so that they could go to give warning to the mainland and the other 

 settlements on the island. 



