The sweet silence of the tropical night was suddenly broken by frightful yells as Caonabo and his warriors rushed the fortress and butchered the inhabitants, setting fire to it and to the houses round about.

As their flimsy huts burst into flames the surprised Spaniards rushed out, only to be fallen upon by the infuriated blacks.

Eight of the Spaniards rushed naked into the sea and were drowned; the rest were butchered.
Guacanagari manfully came to their assistance and with his own followers fought throughout the night; but his were a gentle and unwarlike people, and they were easily routed.

The King himself was badly wounded in the thigh, but Caonabo's principal object seems to have been the destruction of the Spaniards, and when that was completed he and his warriors, laden with the spoils, retired.
Thus Columbus, walking on the shore with his native interpreter, or sitting in his cabin listening with knitted brow to the accounts of the islanders, learns of the complete and utter failure of his first hopes.
It has come to this.

These are the real first-fruits of his glorious conquest and discovery.