bserved descending upon us, from the vaulted roof,
what appeared to be white feathery clouds, which, however, speedily
resolved themselves into a prodigious number of flying hornets. Bruno
was the first to be attacked by these venomous insects. In a moment he
was covered with them, and ran screaming into the water of the
slowly-moving stream. His cries were pitiful, but we could do nothing
to relieve him. In less than a minute he was stung to death.

It now became imperative, if we would save ourselves, to make the best
of our way out of the caves without attempting to carry off any of the
gold we had found. The fate of the boy Bruno had caused a diversion
among the hornets to which we probably owed our lives. In the hope of
distracting them still further, we fired off our muskets, which awoke
echoes in that silent place the like of which had never been heard
before. Had we exploded a barrel of gunpowder, the sound of it would
not have been louder nor the concussion greater, than was caused by the
discharge of our firearms. Huge masses of stalactites fell from the
roof, while the air space around us became filled with bats, and flying
creatures with heads like foxes, disturbed from their slumbers by the
discharge of our guns. The flapping of their wings drove off the
hornets, and greatly aided us in our escape from a horrible death.

On reaching the entrance to the caves, where we arrived more dead than
alive from our adventure, we were met by those of our crew whom we had
brought with us, but were informed that our guides had returned to the
settlement. For this conduct the guides had offered no explanation.
They had said they were acting in accordance with directions given them
by Queen Barreto, and that, having brought us to the mouth of the
caves, their mission ended. We did not at the time attach much
importance to this desertion of us, being now well acquainted with the
path over the cliffs into the valley, opposite to which our ship lay at
anchor, so we did not anticipate any difficulty in returning. As we
advanced, however, our journey was continually impeded by attacks made
upon us by hostile natives, so it was not until toward the evening of
the second day after leaving the caves that we succeeded in climbing
the cliffs above the settlement. Judge then of our dismay when, upon
looking seaward, we perceived our ship standing out from the bay under
full sail, while at her mizzen floated the flag of Spain.