_Of some inroads that were made, and how a Christian was found
who had been a long time in the possession of a Cacique._
From the town of Ucita the Governor sent the chief castellan,
Baltasar de Gallegos, into the country, with forty horsemen and
eighty footmen, to procure an Indian if possible. In another
direction he also sent, for the same purpose, Captain Juan Rodriguez
Lobillo, with fifty infantry: the greater part were of sword and
buckler; the remainder were crossbow and gun men. The command of
Lobillo marched over a swampy land, where horses could not travel;
and, half a league from camp, came upon some huts near a river. The
people in them plunged into the water; nevertheless, four women were
secured; and twenty warriors, who attacked our people, so pressed us
that we were forced to retire into camp.
The Indians are exceedingly ready with their weapons, and so
warlike and nimble, that they have no fear of footmen; for if
these charge them they flee, and when they turn their backs they
are presently upon them. They avoid nothing more easily than the
flight of an arrow. They never remain quiet, but are continually
running, traversing from place to place, so that neither crossbow nor
arquebuse can be aimed at them. Before a Christian can make a single
shot with either, an Indian will discharge three or four arrows;
and he seldom misses of his object. Where the arrow meets with no
armor, it pierces as deeply as the shaft from a crossbow. Their bows
are very perfect; the arrows are made of certain canes, like reeds,
very heavy, and so stiff that one of them, when sharpened, will pass
through a target. Some are pointed with the bone of a fish, sharp
and like a chisel; others with some stone like a point of diamond:
of such the greater number, when they strike upon armor, break at
the place the parts are put together; those of cane split, and will
enter a shirt of mail, doing more injury than when armed.
Juan Rodriguez Lobillo got back to camp with six men wounded, of whom
one died, and he brought with him the four women taken in the huts,
or cabins. When Baltasar de Gallegos came into the open field, he
discovered ten or eleven Indians, among whom was a Christian, naked
and sun-burnt, his arms tattooed after their manner, and he in no
respect differing from them. As soon as the horsemen came in sight,
they ran upon the Indians, who fled, hiding themselves in a thicket,
though not before two or three of them were overtaken and wounded.
The Christian, seeing a horseman coming upon him with a lance, began
to cry out: "Do not kill me, cavalier; I am a Christian! Do not slay
these people; they have given me my life!" Directly he called to the
Indians, putting them out of fear, when they left the wood and came
to him. The horsemen took up the Christian and Indians behind them
on their beasts, and, greatly rejoicing, got back to the Governor at
nightfall. When he and the rest who had remained in camp heard the
news, they were no less pleased than the others.