resort to these woods; there they live with their wives and children and
increase in numbers every year, so that the entire force of Guatemala City
and its environments is not capable to subdue them."

They very often came out of the woods to attack those who drove teams of
mules, and took from them wine, salt, clothes and arms to the quantity they
needed. They never did any harm to the mule drivers nor to their slaves. On
the contrary, the slaves amused themselves with the Cimarrones, because
they were of the same color and in the same condition of servitude, and not
seldom availed themselves of the opportunity to follow their example, and
united with them to obtain liberty, though obliged to live in the woods and
mountains.

Their arms were arrows and bows, which they carried only for the purpose of
defending themselves against attacks of the Spaniards; for they did not
harm those who passed by peacefully and who let them have a part of the
provisions they carried. They often declared that their principal reason
for resorting to these mountains was to be ready to join the English or
Dutch, if these some day appeared in the Gulf, for they well knew that
these, unlike the Spaniards, would let them live in peace.

Among the most remarkable facts learned by Thomas Gage in Guatemala is the
story of a Negro freedman who had accumulated great wealth. This Negro
lived in Agua Caliente, an Indian village, on the road to Guatemala City,
or Antigua, where the natives had obtained considerable quantities of gold
from some spot in the mountains only known to them. The Spaniards, not
content with an annual tribute paid them by the Indians, endeavored in vain
to force the natives to show them the mine, and because they refused killed
them, thus gaining no knowledge of the mine for which they were still
searching in vain in the times of Thomas Gage. "In that place of Agua
Caliente," continues Gage, "there is a Negro who lives and receives very
well the travelers who call upon him. His wealth consists in cattle, sheep,
and goats, and he furnishes the city of Guatemala and the environments with
the best cheese to be found in the country. But it is believed that his
wealth does not come so much from the produce of his farm and his cattle
and cheese, but from that hidden treasure which is believed known to him.
He, therefore, has been summoned to the Royal Audience in Guatemala, but he
has always denied to have any knowledge of it."