eefs. They were obliged,
therefore, to come back to the first river, where at least they could
safely anchor. Here the cacique disclosed his treacherous intentions,
for while our men were engaged in filling their barrels, he fell
upon them, followed by seven hundred naked men, armed in the native
fashion, only he and his officers wearing clothing. He seized the
barque, which he smashed to pieces, and in a twinkling the forty-seven
Spaniards were pierced with arrow-wounds, before they could protect
themselves with their shields. There was but one man who survived, all
the rest perishing from the effects of the poison. No remedy against
this kind of poison was then known, and it was only later that the
islanders of Hispaniola revealed it; for there exists an herb in
Hispaniola of which the juice, if administered in time, counteracts
the poison of the arrows. Seven other Spaniards escaped the massacre,
and took refuge in the trunk of a gigantic tree hollowed by age, where
they concealed themselves till night. But they did not for that reason
escape, for at nightfall the ship of Colmenares sailed away, leaving
them to their fate, and it is not known what became of them.

Lest I should weary you if I related all the particulars, Most Holy
Father, I omit mention of the thousand perilous adventures through
which Colmenares finally reached the Gulf of Uraba. He anchored off
the eastern coast, which is sterile, and from that point he rejoined
his compatriots on the opposite bank several days later. The silence
everywhere amazed him; for he had expected to find his comrades in
those parts. Mystified by this state of things, he wondered whether
the Spaniards were still alive or whether they had settled elsewhere;
and he chose an excellent means for obtaining information. He loaded
all his cannon and mortars to the muzzle with bullets and powder, and
he ordered fires to be lighted on the tops of the hills. The cannon
were all fired together, and their tremendous detonation made the very
earth about the Gulf of Uraba shake. Although they were twenty-four
miles distant, which is the width of the gulf, the Spaniards heard the
noise, and seeing the flames they replied by similar fires. Guided
by these lights Colmenares ordered his ships to cross to the western
shore. The colonists of Darien were in a miserable plight, and after
the shipwreck of the judge Enciso it was only by the greatest efforts
they had managed to exist. With hands r