Juan
Sanchez was certain he sank, bound as he was. With other
captives and with a great mass of golden ornaments, came
back to the ships the Adelantado. The Indian camp was
broken, dispersed.
The rains began to fall. The river swelled; the fort and
store place and other houses were builded.
The eighty who were to stay and the something under
that number who were to go prepared to say farewell. We
went to mass under three palm trees, before our fort on the
river Bethlehem. That over, those who were to go went
aboard the three ships, and the sails were made, and they
began to sing as they passed down the Bethlehem. The
_Margarita_ and we watched their going.
They went a league, and then another--we thought they
were wholly gone. But out of the river, though the skies
were clear, again rushed against them an enemy wind. They
lay at anchor in river mouth, waiting on propitiousness. But
we, up the river, thought they were gone. That night, before
dawn, Quibian attacked us.
We had several killed, and the Adelantado was hurt in
the breast, and many others had their wounds. But we
thundered with our cannon and we loosed two bloodhounds
and we charged. For a time the brown, naked foe fought
desperately, but at last he broke. Far streamed five hundred
fleeing particles into the gloomy, the deep, the matted
forest.
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