y were right in thinking that the Indians were
planning to attack them. The woman, by name Maria, said "No" with her
lips, because other Indians were near, but "Yes" with her eyes. The
monks and the clerico's servants were very much alarmed, and a ship
touching on that coast for some reason, they begged the captain to take
them on board; but he refused, and they were left to their fate.

In the settlement great anxiety and terror reigned. The white men tried
to find out what day had been set for the attack, and at last heard that
it was to take place the next day. They began to fortify the monastery
and the storehouse, and set up twelve or fourteen guns that they had;
but discovered that their powder was damp. We wonder how they could have
been so careless as to allow it to be in this state, when they had known
for some time that trouble was likely to occur. Now, however, they took
it out to dry it in the sun, as soon as it rose. They were too late,
however; for the Indians came upon them with a rush, and they fled for
the monastery building. A few of the clerico's servants were killed, but
the rest of them and the fathers reached the shelter of the monastery.
The Indians, however, set it on fire.

There was a door into the garden, at the rear, and a tall fence of cane
hid it from the view of the Indians. The refugees ran out of this door
into the garden and through another door out to the creek that ran
nearby, where the monks had a boat of their own, which would hold fifty
persons. All got in except one lay brother, who at the first alarm had
fled and was hidden in a thicket of cane. He now appeared, high up on
the bank, and the boatmen tried hard to reach him; but the current was
too strong; all their exertions failed to bring the boat near enough to
him. Seeing that all would be lost if they did not cease their attempt
to save him, the brother signed to them not to make further effort; and
they were obliged to leave him to his fate. Poor fellow! He was killed
almost at once.

The Indians were not long in seeing that their victims were escaping,
and hurried after them in a much lighter boat, so that they gained on
the fugitives with every stroke. The Spaniards were obliged to drive
their boat to land and hide in a thicket of cactus. Only those in fear
of death could have forced their way into such a thicket. The Indians,
with their naked bodies, could not push through the thorns, and the
fleeing men therefore escap