s yells, and fought with the
ferocity of infuriated lions. Our black artilleryman, (for he was every
way entitled to the appellation of negro,) in the dread of the moment
had quite lost his senses, and forgot to fire the cannon; but when at
last, by hollowing out to him at the top of our voices, he summoned
sufficient courage to fire it with a trembling hand, he wounded three of
our own men, instead of committing any destruction among the enemy's
ranks. Our captain seeing how matters stood, now ordered the cavalry to
form themselves in the small bodies above mentioned, the rest of the
troops to close in a firm body together and in that way to fall
vigorously upon the enemy; but their numbers were too great, and if
there had not been many of us present who were accustomed to Indian
warfare, the rest of the troops would have been in the greatest
consternation. We were indeed astonished to find how firmly these
Indians maintained their ground. Father Juan kept constantly encouraging
us to the attack, by saying, "That our reward would lay with God and the
emperor." Our captain likewise animated us with the cry of: "Forward!
gentlemen, Santiago is with us!" And now we fell upon the enemy with
renewed courage and compelled them to give way. From the very
unfavorable state of the ground, which was covered with loose stones,
our cavalry were unable to pursue the enemy with any success; but we
kept as close at their heels as we possibly could, and marched with less
precaution, as we thought this day's work was at an end, and we offered
up thanks to God for our victory. However, when we had arrived near to
some small hills we found even larger bodies of men drawn up in order of
battle. Besides their usual weapons they had a number of ropes with
loops at the end, which they threw at the horses in order to pull them
to the ground. Strong nets which they use for the purpose of snaring the
wild deer were also fixed at certain distances to catch our horse, and
they had other smaller ropes with loops, which were to be thrown about
our necks to pull us towards them. The whole of these troops in an
instant fell upon us, pouring forth as they came along so vast a number
of stones, darts, and arrows, that almost every man of us received a
fresh wound. In this severe engagement we lost two Spaniards and five
horses, and four of the cavalry soldiers had their lances wrested from
their hands.

During this battle we saw a very fat old Indian f