him on the flank, and overturned his boat. The Spaniards had
been tranquilly sailing along without dreaming of the possibility of
an attack, and their barque being suddenly overturned all those whom
the natives could catch were massacred or drowned, except two men, who
grasped some floating tree trunks and, concealing themselves in the
branches, let themselves drift, unseen by the enemy, and thus managed
to rejoin their companions.

[Note 1: _Furatado quodam decurione. Licet decurione more romano
non sint addicti praecise quindecim milites quos regat, centurionique
centum viginti octo, centuriones tamen ultro citroque centenarium
numerum, et ultro citroque denum, decurionem est consilium appellare;
nec enim hos servant ordines hispani ex amussim, cogimurque nomine
rebus et magistratibus dare_. Thus Peter Martyr for the second time
vindicates his knowledge of Roman military terms and his usage of
them. His explanation is extraneous to the narrative.]

Warned of the danger by those two men who had escaped death, the
Spaniards became suspicious of everything. They were alarmed for their
safety, and remembered that they only escaped a similar calamity at
Rio Negro because they had received the reinforcement of thirty men on
the night before the attack. They held frequent councils of war, but
in the midst of their hesitations they reached no decision. After
careful investigation they finally learned that five caciques had
fixed a day for the massacre of Christians. These five were: Abibaiba,
who lived in the swampy forest; Zemaco, who had been driven from his
home; Abraibes and Abenamacheios, the river chiefs; and Dobaiba, the
cacique of the fishermen, living at the extremity of the gulf called
Culata. This plan would have been carried out, and it was only by a
miracle, which we are bound to examine with leniency, that chance
disclosed the plot of the caciques. It is a memorable story and I will
tell it in a few words.

This Vasco Nunez, a man of action rather than of judgment, was an
egregious ruffian, who had obtained authority in Darien by force
rather than by consent of the colonists; amongst the numerous native
women he had carried off, there was one of remarkable beauty. One of
her brothers, who was an officer much favoured by the cacique Zemaco,
often came to visit her. He likewise had been driven out of his
country, but as he loved his sister warmly, he spoke to her in
conversation in the following words:

"Lis