Oviedo and Herrera both relate how they proceeded to discover this.  Urayoan, the cacique of Yagueeca, was charged with the experiment.  Chance soon favored him.  A young man named Salcedo passed through his village to join some friends.  He was hospitably received, well fed, and a number of men[17] were told to accompany him and carry his luggage.  He arrived at the Guaoraba, a river on the west side of the island, which flows into the bay of San German.  They offered to carry him across.  The youth accepted, was taken up between two of the strongest Indians, who, arriving in the middle of the river, dumped him under water—­then they fell on him and held him down till he struggled no more.  Dragging him ashore, they now begged his pardon, saying that they had stumbled, and called upon him to rise and continue the voyage; but the young man did not move, he was dead, and they had the proof that the supposed demi-gods were mortals after all.

The news spread like wildfire, and from that day the Indians were in open rebellion and began to take the offensive, shooting their arrows and otherwise molesting every Spaniard they happened to meet alone or off his guard.

The following episode related by Oviedo illustrates the mental disposition of the natives of Boriquen at this period.

Aymamon, the cacique whose village was on the river Culebrinas, near the settlement of Soto Mayor, had surprised a lad of sixteen years wandering alone in the forest.  The cacique carried him off, tied him to a post in his hut and proposed to his men a game of ball, the winner to have the privilege of convincing himself and the others of the mortality of their enemies by killing the lad in any way he pleased.  Fortunately for the intended victim, one of the Indians knew the youth’s father, one Pedro Juarez, in the neighboring settlement, and ran to tell him of the danger that menaced his son.  Captain Diego Salazar, who in Soto Mayor’s absence was in command of the settlement, on hearing of the case, took his sword and buckler and guided by the friendly Indian, reached the village while the game for the boy’s life was going on.  He first cut the lad’s bonds, and with the words “Do as you see me do!” rushed upon the crowd of about 300 Indians and laid about him right and left with such effect that they had no chance even of defending themselves.  Many were killed and wounded.  Among the latter was Aymamon himself, and Salazar returned in triumph with the boy.

But now comes the curious part of the story, which shows the character of the Boriquen Indian in a more favorable light.