while we came upon the said meadow; but as we entered it, at the
beginning it had half a yard of water; we went ploughing through it and
at each step there was more water, and it took a long time to cross it,
causing us pain enough in our wounds. But with the care that we took
not to get submerged, we forgot that feeling, since the earth of the
said marsh was so spongy that though we doubled up the reeds which grew
there in large number, so as to step over it, so that the water might
hold us up, yet if we stopped a moment, the overflowed earth drew and
sucked us in in such a way, that if we should fall, we could not help
one another, since he who should stop to help the other, would be
submerged with him."

Miracle of the Bent Branch. "At the end of a long stretch of this
trouble, we reached some little woods, with trees of considerable
height, which were as much, or more, covered with water as what we had
passed through. We passed through these as well as we could, having in
mind that that was now coming to an end, when suddenly we came across a
very large _aguada_ of the kind they call Kaxek, in which no bottom is
found. Armed with patience, although with some trouble from the fact
that the sun was about to set, considering that we had to stay there
that night, I made an Indian climb one of the said trees, so as to see
where the _aguada_ ended, or where we could make a short cut through
the said _aguada_; and the said Indian not discovering a passage in any
part to our great sorrow, we, looking towards one side, saw a branch of
a tree broken, like those which the Indians break so as not to lose
themselves in the woods. We attributed this sign to a miracle, as it
was not probable that a human being could place that sign in that
place. We followed that sign in an easterly direction, which was that
towards which the said branch was bent, until, when, at a little
distance, we came upon another branch bent in the same way and very
recently. At this we were consoled by the miracle which God kept
continuing. We went on with sticks in our hands, trying the shallow
places, because, when we least expected it, we came on many holes of
alligators (since they are found in abundance in the said overflowed
woods) and then we were submerged almost to our heads. We discovered a
piece of level ground, about as large as the ante-room of a cell, and
thinking that it was solid, we started to pass over it, but on its
bearing the weight o