Of the garrison which Columbus
had left in the island none remained. There was scarcely a trace,
moreover, of the existence of the rough fort which had been constructed.
The manner of the natives had altered; they received the new-comers with
marked evidences of fear and distrust.
After a while the truth came out. Some members of the European garrison
had taken upon themselves to maltreat the natives, and these, resenting
this, had turned upon their aggressors and slaughtered them to a man,
after which they had burned the fort to the ground. In order to
inculcate the necessary terror into the unfortunate inhabitants a
fearful revenge was wreaked on them by Columbus's men, and the unhappy
people of Haiti paid for their act in floods of blood and tears. This
continued until the Indians became for the time being thoroughly cowed.
Subsequently they were set to work to dig for gold and other metals in
order to enrich the pioneers.
As time went on the natives were ground down more and more, and set to
tasks for which they were temperamentally quite unsuited. Death became
rife among their ranks, and the hardships endured drove them to open
rebellion. The armour and weapons of the Spaniards rendered any attempts
of the kind abortive, and massacres and torturing completed the
enslaving process of the wretched race.
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