aulted him boldly on all sides, making
hideous shouts and blowing their horns. They had great odds against our
people, being in great numbers, and their canoes very swift and manageable,
especially the small ones belonging to the fishermen, which hold three or
four men in each, one of whom paddles and can easily turn it about as he
pleases, while the others threw their javelins at our boat. I call them
javelins because of their bigness, though they have no iron heads, but are
only pointed with fish bones. In our boat there were seven or eight men to
row, and three or four more with the captain to fight; and as the rowers
could not defend themselves from the javelins, they were forced to quit
the oars to handle their targets. But the Indians poured upon them in such
multitudes from all sides, advancing and retiring in good order as they
thought fit, that they wounded most of the Christians, especially Captain
Tristan who was hurt in many places; and though he stood unmoved,
encouraging his men, his bravery availed him nothing, for he was beset on
all sides and could not stir or make use of his musket, and at length he
was pierced by a javelin in the eye and fell down dead. All the rest
shared his fate except one man named John da Noia a native of Cadiz; he by
good fortune fell into the water in the height of the combat, and gaining
the shore by diving made his way through the thickest of the woods to the
colony, where he brought the melancholy news of the destruction of all his
companions.

This intelligence, joined to what had befallen themselves, so terrified
our people, who were likewise afraid that the admiral, being at sea
without a boat, might never reach a place from whence he could send them
assistance, that they determined to abandon the colony, and would
certainly have done so without orders, had not the mouth of the river been
rendered impassable by bad weather and a heavy surf in which no boat could
live, so that they could not even convey advice to the admiral of what had
occurred. The admiral was in no little danger and perplexity, riding in an
open road with no boat, and his complement much diminished. Those on
shore were in great confusion and dismay, seeing those who had been
killed in the boat, floating down the river, followed by the country crows,
and this they looked upon as an evil omen, dreading that the same fate
awaited themselves; and the more so as they perceived the Indians puffed
up by their l