. When we had arrived near enough, the enemy
showered their arrows so quickly upon us, that six of our horses were
killed and eight men wounded. Rangel himself, who was seated on
horseback, received a slight wound in the arm. We, the veteran
Conquistadores, had often told him what bold, crafty, and expert
warriors he would have to encounter here, and now he began to believe so
himself; and as he was a man who talked a good deal, he said if he had
followed our advice this would not have happened to him; and, for the
future, he desired we would take upon ourselves the command of the
troops during this campaign.

After the wounds of our men and those of our horses had been dressed,
Rangel desired me to reconnoitre the enemy's position, and take with me
two of our most active musketeers, and a remarkably fierce dog which he
possessed; he himself, as he had been advised, would follow me at some
distance behind with the cavalry and the rest of our troops. When I,
with my two companions, approached near to Cimatan, we came up to other
fortifications equally as strong as the former, from out of which we
were greeted with a cloud of arrows and darts. The poor dog lay
instantly dead at our feet, and I myself should have shared a similar
fate if my jacket had not been very thickly quilted with cotton, for I
was wounded in no less than seven places by the enemy's arrows, one of
which struck my leg; nor did my two companions fare better. I now called
out to some of our Indian troops, who were close behind us, to hasten
back and call the whole of the foot to our assistance, but to desire the
cavalry not to advance, as they would not be able to manoeuvre here, and
would only expose their horses to the enemy's unerring arrows.

With the musketeers, crossbow-men, and the remaining foot, we now
marched forward in a body to the attack, and very soon beat the enemy
out of their entrenchments, who then retreated precipitately to the
swamps, where it was impossible to follow them without great risk, for
the ground was of so spongy a nature that the moment we set foot on it
we sank down, and it was with great difficulty a person was got out
again.

By this time Rangel had come up with the horse, and we quartered
ourselves in a number of houses which stood together, and were quite
deserted by the inhabitants; here we remained quiet for the remaining
part of the day and dressed our wounds. The next morning we marched
direct for Cimatan itsel