Ojeda leaves Isabela with over 400 men

On Wednesday, the 9th of April of the same year 1494, Alonso de Ojeda left la Isabela with the people, who numbered more than 400 men, and, on arriving at the river and crossing to the other side, which the Admiral had named the Rio del Oro, which we said above is the Mao, as we conjecture, because we know that land very well, and how many rivers and what kinds it has, and what they were called in the language of the Indians, as, God willing, will be named below, Ojeda seized the cacique and lord of the town that was there, and a brother and nephew of his, and sent them in chains to la Isabela, to the Admiral; he did more, for he ordered the ears cut off an Indian, a vassal of the said cacique and lord, in the middle of the plaza of his town; the cause of doing this deed, so it is said, was that when three Christians were coming from the said fortress to la Isabela, the said cacique gave them five Indians to carry their clothing across the ford, and in the middle of the river they left them, and went back with it to their town, and, so it is said, the cacique did not punish them for it, but rather took the clothing for himself.