After this great victory, the admiral ranged for nine or ten months about the island, punishing such as he found most active in the revolt.  For some time he met with considerable opposition from the brothers of Caunabo; but finding themselves unable to resist, they and Guarionex, being the most powerful caciques in the island, submitted at length to the admiral.  On the complete reduction of the island, Columbus imposed the following tribute upon its native inhabitants.  All the inhabitants from 14 years of age and upwards of the Royal Plain, the province of Cibao, and of other districts near the mines, were ordered to pay the fill of a small hawks-bell of gold dust every three months.  Those of the other provinces were rated at a quarter of an hundred weight of cotton.  The cacique Manicatex, who had headed the great insurrection, was condemned to pay monthly half a gourd, or calabash full of gold, which was worth 150 pieces of eight.  To ascertain the regular payment of this tribute, certain medals of brass or copper were coined, every time the tribute fell due, and every tributary Indian received one of these to wear about his neck, that it might be known who had paid. Guarionex, the principal cacique of the Royal Plain, represented to the admiral that his subjects knew not how to gather the gold which was exacted from them, and offered to cultivate corn for the Spaniards all across the island, from the town of Isabella to where St Domingo was afterwards built, provided he would demand no gold from him.  The distance between these two places is 55 leagues[1], and the grain produce of this vast territory would have sufficed to maintain the whole population of Castile.  The admiral was conscious that he was obnoxious to the ministers of their Catholic majesties, being an unprotected stranger, and that he could not support his interest in Spain, except by the transmission of treasure, which made him eager to procure gold from the natives:  But the pressure of this tribute was so intolerable upon the Indians, that many of them abandoned their habitations and roamed about the island, to avoid the tax which they were unable to pay, seeking a precarious subsistence in the woods.  In the sequel, finding this tribute could not be paid, its amount was lessened by the admiral.

The Indians had flattered themselves that the visit of the Spaniards to their country was only temporary, and used often to ask them when they meant to return home:  But finding that they built stone houses, that they were much greater eaters than themselves, and were even obliged to bring part of their provisions out of Spain, many of the towns endeavoured to contrive to starve the Spaniards, so that they should either perish for want of food, or be compelled to return into Spain.  For this purpose they discontinued the cultivation of provisions, and withdrew into the woods and mountains, trusting to wild roots and the vast numbers of an animal like a rabbit, called utias,