es to succeed. Without a port, the discovery, they knew, would be of
little importance.

Next day, being the 3rd of May, the three vessels anchored in the port
with great joy, giving many thanks to God. Natives were seen passing
along the beach.

The captain, with the boats, went to look at them, with the desire to
take some of them and send them back clothed and kindly treated, so that
in this and other ways friendship might be established. He did all he
could to induce them to get into the boats. They did the same to get the
Spaniards to land, and as the latter would not, the natives flung certain
fruits into the water, which the men in the boats collected, and with
which they returned to the ships.

The day after, the captain ordered the admiral to go on shore with a
party of soldiers, and try by all possible means to catch some natives,
so as to establish peace and friendship, based on the good work they
intended to do for them.

The party ran the boat high up on the beach, and quickly formed in a
squadron, for the natives were coming, and it was not known with what
object. Being near, they made signs and spoke, but were not understood.
The Spaniards called to them in return; then the natives drew a line on
the ground and seemed to say that the new-comers were not to pass beyond
it. They could not understand one another, and there seems to have been a
want of management and discipline. Natives were seen in the woods, and to
frighten them some muskets were fired into the air. A soldier who had
lost patience, or who had forgotten his orders, fired low and killed a
native. The others, with loud cries, fled. A Moor, who was the drummer in
the Spanish corps, cut off the head and one foot of the dead native, and
hung the body on the branch of a tree, without being seen to do it by
those on the beach.

It then happened that three native chiefs came to where the Spaniards
were, who, instead of showing them kindness, and taking them on board,
showed them the headless body of their comrade, pretending that this
cruelty was a means of making peace.

The chiefs, showing great sorrow, went back to where their people were,
and shortly afterwards sounded their instruments, that is, their war
drums, with great force and noise, which was heard on the hills among the
trees.

Then from many directions they began shooting arrows and darts, and
throwing stones, while the Spaniards fired on them, turning on one side
or the other