Margrite and Buil, the two deadly enemies of Columbus, meanwhile had reached Spain. He knew that they would spare no pains to belittle his services in every way they could and to convince the suspicious King of Spain that the discoveries made by him were of very small account. He saw a storm coming which would certainly overwhelm him if he did not take measures to avert it. The only means of doing this was to send the Spanish Court some conspicuous proof of the wealth which he had promised would accrue from his discoveries; and to place himself in a position to furnish such proof, he found it necessary to make extortionate demands upon the poor Indians for contributions. He ordered that the islanders living in the gold region should bring to him quarterly a certain quantity of gold-dust and all the others twenty-five pounds of cotton wool. This was more than the poor people could furnish. As they had been accustomed from youth to a life of idleness, it became unendurable for them to search for gold and gather cotton wool day after day like slaves. Their sustenance was growing scarcer each week and yet the Europeans cruelly drove them to their tasks. As they could not furnish what was demanded of them, even with their utmost exertions, they determined to carry out a plan possible only for those in a desperate condition. Counting upon the gluttony of the Europeans, they thought it feasible to compel them to leave the island if they stopped planting maize and cassava. They unanimously destroyed their crops and fled into unapproachable mountain places, where they subsisted upon fruits and wild turnips, but the unfortunates were soon the victims of their own scheme. They quickly felt the pangs of that hunger which they thought would overcome their oppressors. Some of them were swept away in a lamentable manner, others were carried off by contagious diseases, and the remainder were so exhausted that they could not bear the burdens imposed upon them. As far as the Spaniards were concerned they did not suffer much from this desperate scheme, for by their own exertions and by the arrival of subsistence from Europe they were protected from utter want. The hope of the poor natives, that they might survive the intruders, perished.