ed this
bridge of troubles, I discovered some Spaniards and many of our allies
flying back in great haste, and the enemy like dogs in pursuit of them;
and when I saw such a rout, I began to cry out, 'Hold, hold!' and on
approaching the water, I beheld it full of Spaniards and Indians in so
dense a mass that it seemed as if there was not room for a straw to
float. The enemy charged on the fugitives so hotly, that in the
_melee_ they threw themselves into the water after them; and soon the
enemy's canoes came up by means of the canal and took the Spaniards
alive.

As this affair was so sudden, and I saw them killing our men, I
resolved to remain there and perish in the fight. The way in which I
and those that were with me could do the most good was to give our
hands to some unfortunate Spaniards who were drowning, and draw them
out of the water; some came out wounded, others half-drowned, and
others without arms, whom I sent forward. Already such multitudes of
the enemy pressed upon us, that they had completely surrounded me and
the twelve or fifteen men who were with me; and being deeply interested
in endeavoring to save those that were sinking, I did not observe nor
regard the danger to which I was exposed. Several Indians {202} of the
enemy had already advanced to seize me and would have borne me off, had
it not been for a captain of fifty men whom I always had with me, and
also a youth of his company, to whom next to God, I owed my life; and
in saving mine, like a valiant man, he lost his own.[12] In the
meantime the Spaniards who had fled before the enemy, pursued their
course along the causeway, and as it was small and narrow, and on the
same level as the water, which had been effected by those dogs on
purpose to annoy us; and as the road was crowded also with our allies
who had been routed, much delay was thereby occasioned, enabling the
enemy to come up on both sides of the water, and to take and destroy as
many as they pleased. The captain who was with me, Antonio de
Quinones, said to me: 'Let us leave this place and save your life,
since you know that without you none of us can escape'; but he could
not induce me to go. When he saw this, he seized me in his arms, that
he might force me away; and although I would have been better satisfied
to die than to live, yet by the importunity of this captain and of my
other companions, we began to retreat, making our way with our swords
and bucklers against the ene