f, and our route lay through extensive open
plains, in which there were many dangerous bogs. In one of these the
enemy lay in wait for us, and certainly they had calculated well in
taking up their position here, for they easily foresaw, when the
cavalry, in the heat of the battle, spread themselves in the open plain,
they could not fail to get into the swampy ground, where they would be
unable to move. We had many times cautioned Rangel about this, but he
refused to listen to our advice; and, indeed, he was the first to get
fixed in the bogs, where he lost his horse, and would himself
undoubtedly have been killed if several of us had not hastened to his
assistance, for several Indians had already laid hold of him to carry
him off and sacrifice him to their idols. He thus narrowly escaped with
his life, though his head, which, besides, was covered with sores, had
been shockingly beat about by the enemy.

As this district was very thickly populated, and there was another
township not very far off, we determined to march thither; but the
inhabitants, on our approach, fled precipitately. Here we halted for a
short time to dress Rangel's wounds and those of three other soldiers.

The next township we came to was likewise deserted by its inhabitants;
but in this neighbourhood the enemy had thrown up a very formidable
entrenchment, with a palisade of uncommon strength, supplied with
loop-holes. Here we had scarcely rested a quarter of an hour when the
enemy came suddenly pouring forth into the town from all sides, and fell
upon us with so much intrepidity that they killed one of our men and two
horses, and it was with the utmost difficulty we could succeed in
driving them back again.

Our friend Rangel suffered greatly from the wounds he had received on
his head; besides which he was tormented by the moschitoes and a large
species of bat which bite people and suck their blood, so that he could
get no rest day or night; and as it rained without intermission, he,
with several of the men who had recently arrived from Spain, grew
heartily sick of this mode of warfare; these soldiers brought forcibly
to his mind the bad state of his health, the little advantage we had
gained by the three several battles we had fought with the enemy, and
how we had lost eleven horses and two men, besides that numbers were
wounded, and that it would be impossible to accomplish anything more in
a country so full of swamps and morasses. All this Rang