who had
been scattered abroad, and had joined them. At daybreak we arrived at
the first village, close to the sea. It was one of the finest places
I have seen, with excellent houses, and a very elaborate mosque; there
was a good supply of swine, fowls, goats, and fruit. The enemy made a
stand, but at the first encounter we overpowered them, and killed or
captured more than two hundred persons; the troops stopped for food,
and then I had the village burned. I would have liked to attack another
village, which lay a day's march inland, and which has two thousand
houses. I left it, because I could have done nothing at that time;
for the fugitives from the first village had warned them, and they had
all gone to the mountains. This stroke had terrorized the whole coast,
and not a vessel appeared over its whole extent; for, as there were
Indians in many places, they had all received news of it without delay.

I could remain no longer, nor pass on to other encounters which I
might have had there, on account of the crops which I had discovered
at Buyahen, which were urgently demanding my presence for the harvest,
before their owners should gather them. Accordingly I came back to the
fort, whence, in less than four days, I again sent the same captains
who had been there before, for the crops, with eighty soldiers and
all the boats, besides five hundred friendly Indians, to gather
the harvest, and to take another fort in the same neighborhood,
of which the Indians informed them. On the twenty-second of October
they attacked it, and took it with all the artillery, killing more
than a hundred and seventy of them, besides taking a number captive. I
did not come out so cheaply as the last time; for it was an extremely
strong place, having, besides the usual defenses, inventions of which a
barbarous people are incapable. Furthermore, they had fastened on the
very curtains some large spars bent like a bow, so that when anyone
attacked it, by cutting one end loose from the inside a hundred men
would be thrown down--namely, all who were climbing upon the rampart
platform. It was intrenched at intervals in such wise that it was
necessary to win it step by step, and from below, if one undertook
to take it by storm. There were a great many pikemen to receive the
stormers, and they felt so safe that they put their women and goods
on the inside to guard them better. Thus they lost everything, and
the booty was very rich, although the Indians