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valuable document, and always went through the formality of having the
publication of it attested by a notary public.

Ojeda seized some seventy-five captives, male and female, as slaves.
They were sent on board the ships. The Indian warriors, infuriated
beyond measure, now attacked in earnest the shore party, comprising
seventy men, among whom were Ojeda and La Cosa. The latter, unable to
prevent him, had considered it proper to go ashore with the hot-headed
governor to restrain him so far as was possible. Ojeda impetuously
attacked the Indians and, with part of his men, pursued them several
miles inland to their town, of which he took possession.

The savages, in constantly increasing numbers, clustered around the
town and attacked the Spaniards with terrible persistence. Ojeda and
his followers took refuge in huts and enclosures and fought valiantly.
Finally all were killed, or fatally wounded by the envenomed darts
except Ojeda himself and a few men, who retreated to a small palisaded
enclosure. Into this improvised fort the Indians poured a rain of
poisoned arrows which soon struck down every one but the governor
himself. Being small of stature and extremely agile, and being
provided with a large target or shield, he was able successfully to
fend off the deadly arrows from his person. It was only a question of
time before the Indians would get him and he would die in the frightful
agony which his men experienced after being infected with the poison
upon the arrow-points. In his extremity, he was rescued by La Cosa who
had kept in hand a moiety of the shore party.

The advent of La Cosa saved Ojeda. Infuriated at the slaughter of his
men, Ojeda rashly and {12} intemperately threw himself upon the
savages, at once disappearing from the view of La Cosa and his men, who
were soon surrounded and engaged in a desperate battle on their own
account. They, too, took refuge in the building, from which they were
forced to tear away the thatched roof that might have shielded them
from the poisoned arrows, in fear lest the Indians might set it on
fire. And they in turn were also reduced to the direst of straits.
One after another was killed, and finally La Cosa himself, who had been
desperately wounded before, received a mortal hurt; while but one man
remained on his feet.

Possibly thinking that they had killed the whole party, and withdrawing
to turn their attention to Ojeda, furiously ranging th