es behind the rest, the Indians immediately
attacked and even boarded it, and would in all probability have made
themselves master of it, had not the other brigantines come up to its
rescue. However the Indians carried off the canoe from the stern, in
which were five sows that had been reserved for a breed.

On the sixteenth day of the voyage, one Estevanez, a desperate yet
clownish fellow, who was vain of the reputation he had acquired by his
intrepidity, took away the canoe from the stern of the brigantine in
which he was embarked, and persuaded five other soldiers to accompany
him, saying that he was going to perform an exploit to gain fame, and to
obtain leave of the captain of the vessel, he pretended that he was
going to speak with the general. When he had got clear of the
brigantine, he immediately made towards the enemy, crying out _fall on
them! they run!_ When Alvarado saw this mad action he endeavoured to
recall Estevanez by sound of trumpet, and sent about forty men after him
in several canoes under the command of Juan de Guzman, to bring back
Estevanez whom Alvarado intended to hang for his breach of discipline.
At the same time the brigantines furled their sails and rowed up against
the stream to support the canoes. The Indian canoes, which covered the
water for an extent of a quarter of a league, retreated a little way on
purpose to separate the Spanish canoes from the brigantines; on which,
quite frantic at seeing them give way, Estevanez pushed on, followed by
the other canoes which were sent to bring him back. The Indian canoes
then drew up in form of a crescent, and when the Spanish canoes were
well advanced among them, those Indian canoes which formed the horn or
point on the right, attacked them so furiously athwart ships that they
sunk them all, by which means all the Spaniards were drowned, and if any
happened to appear above water, they were either shot with arrows, or
had their brains dashed out by the paddles. Thus forty-eight Spaniards
perished, only four escaping of all that were in the canoes. The Indians
held on their pursuit of the brigantines all that day making continual
rejoicings for their victory. On the _seventeenth_ day at sun-rise, when
the Indians had paid their adorations to the sun with hideous cries, and
a prodigious noise of drums, horns, and trumpets, they ceased the
pursuit of the Spaniards and retired, having continued the chase about
four hundred leagues.

The river was n