SECTION V.

Alonzo de Hojeda and Diego de Nicuessa are commissioned to make Discoveries and Settlements in the New World, with an account of the adventures and misfortunes of Hojeda.

Among the adventurers who petitioned the court of Spain for licenses to make discoveries, was Alonzo de Hojeda, a brave man, but very poor, who had spent all he had hitherto gained; but John de la Cosa, who had been his pilot and had saved money, offered to assist him with his life and fortune.  They got the promise of a grant of all that had been discovered on the continent; but one Diego Nicuessa interposed, and being a richer man, with better interest, he stopped their grant and procured half of it to himself.  Hojeda and Cosa got a grant of all the country from Cape De la Vela to the gulf of Uraba, now called the Gulf of Darien, the country appropriated to them being called New Andalusia; while Nicuessa received the grant of all the country from the before-mentioned gulf to Cape Garcias a Dios, under the name of Castilla del Oro, or Golden Castile.  In neither of these grants was any notice taken of the admiral, to whom, of right, all these countries belonged, as having being discovered by his father.  Nicuessa got likewise a grant of the island of Jamaica; but the admiral being in the West Indies secured that to himself.  Hojeda fitted out a ship and a brigantine, and Nicuessa two brigantines, with which vessels they sailed together to St Domingo, where they quarrelled about their respective rights, and their disputes were adjusted with much difficulty.  These were at length settled, and they both proceeded for their respective governments, or rather to settle the colonies of which these were to be composed; but the disputes had occupied so much time that it was towards the end of 1510 before either of them left Hispaniola.

Hojeda, accompanied by Francis Pizarro, departed from the island Beata, standing to the southward, and arrived in a few days at Carthagena, which is called Caramari by the Indians.  The natives of that place were then in great confusion, and ready to oppose the Spaniards, because of the injuries which had been done them by Christopher Guerra and others, who had carried away many of the natives for slaves not long before.  The natives of this coast were of large stature, the men wearing their hair down to their ears, while the women wore theirs long, and both sexes were very expert in the use of bows and arrows.  Hojeda and Cosa had some religious men along with them, their Catholic majesties being very desirous to have the Indians converted to Christianity; and having some natives of Hispaniola along with them as interpreters, they tried by their means to persuade the Indians to peace, leaving off their cruelty, idolatry, and other vicious practices; but they were much incensed against the Spaniards, on account of the villanous conduct of Guerra,