sturing there. Rejoicing in the
prospect of good cheer, we sent forty men to make sure, and when they
came back they told us that what we had taken for cattle were horses,
ready saddled, and that in the same place they had found three
intrenchments a pistol shot from each other, which, rising by degrees to
about the middle of the mountain slope, entirely barred the way which we
meant to travel the next day. These intrenchments commanded the river
which ran the length of the valley, into which it was absolutely
necessary for us to descend, there being no other way. They saw a man
who, having discovered them, threatened them with a bare cutlass.

This grievous news was a bitter disappointment to us, especially the
loss of our supposed cows, for we were perishing with hunger. But we had
to take courage and find out how to leave this place--and without delay,
for the Spaniards, who were assembling from all the country round, would
fall upon our little troop, which must be overwhelmed, if we waited for
them. The means were not easy to find, and perhaps escape would have
seemed impossible, except to our reckless band, who had hitherto
succeeded in nearly all our exploits. But ten thousand men could not
have crossed that guarded valley without being cut off entirely, both by
reason of the number of the Spaniards and the position they occupied.

Men alone could have gone round without crossing the valley, but we
could find no way round for the horses and baggage. For the country on
each side was nothing but a thick forest, without the trace of a path,
all precipices and ravines, and choked with a multitude of fallen trees.
And even had we found a way of escape through so many obstacles, it was
indispensable to fight the Spaniards sooner or later, if they were ever
to let us alone!

There was only one thing to be done--to cross these woods, rocks, and
mountains, however inaccessible they seemed, and surprise our enemies,
taking advantage of the place by coming upon them from above, where they
certainly would not expect us. As to our prisoners, horses, and baggage,
since through all our march a troop of three hundred Spaniards had been
dogging our steps without daring to approach, we would leave eighty men
to guard them--enough to beat four times as many Spaniards.

At nightfall we set out, leaving our eighty men, with orders to the
sentinels to fire and beat the retreat and the diane at the usual times,
to make the three hund