that we should follow him to his habitation,
making at the same time so many demonstrations of friendship, that a
second consultation was held as to whether we should accompany him or
not. This was carried in the affirmative, but we took every precaution
to be upon our guard, marching in close order with our arms ready for
action. We took fifteen crossbows with a like number of matchlocks, and
followed the cazique, who was accompanied by a great number of Indians.

As we were thus marching along, and had arrived in the vicinity of
several rocky mountains, the cazique all at once raised his voice,
calling aloud to his warriors, who it seemed were lying wait in ambush,
to fall upon us and destroy us all. The cazique had no sooner given the
signal, than out rushed with terrible fury great numbers of armed
warriors, greeting us with such a shower of arrows, that fifteen of our
men were immediately wounded. These Indians were clad in a kind of
cuirass made of cotton, and armed with lances, shields, bows, and
slings; with each a tuft of feathers stuck on his head. As soon as they
had let fly their arrows, they rushed forward and attacked us man to
man, setting furiously to with their lances, which they held in both
hands. When, however, they began to feel the sharp edge of our swords,
and saw what destruction our crossbows and matchlocks made among them,
they speedily began to give way. Fifteen of their number lay dead on the
field.

At some distance from the spot where they had so furiously attacked us
was a small place in which stood three houses built of stone and lime.
These were temples in which were found many idols made of clay which
were of a pretty good size; some had the countenances of devils, others
those of females: some again had even more horrible shapes, and appeared
to represent Indians committing horrible offences. In these temples we
also found small wooden boxes containing other of their gods with
hellish faces, several small shells, some ornaments, three crowns, and
other trinkets, some in the shape of fish, others in the shape of ducks,
all worked out of an inferior kind of gold. Seeing all this, the gold,
and the good architectural style of the temples, we felt overjoyed at
the discovery of this country; for Peru was not discovered till sixteen
years after. While we were fighting with the Indians, the priest
Gonzalez ordered the gold and small idols to be removed to our ships by
two Indians whom we had