The wars which followed in the prosecution of this embassy
[By the sufferings and danger which we had passed through, the Lord
had prepared us to endure those which were to follow. To protect the
ship, some of the men had encamped on a little sand island in the
middle of the river. On one bank was the town (i.e., Chordamuco)
of the natives, near which there were about two thousand Chinese,
some settled here, others who had recently come from China as traders,
with their merchandise, in five large vessels, which they kept in the
river near the town. They had controlled the natives, and resented
the coming of the Spaniards, thinking that the latter had come to
disturb or take away the superiority which they had. So they sought
for an opportunity to quarrel with them, seeing that the Spaniards
were few and that they were many. Whenever the men on the ship went to
buy food on land, the Chinese tried their patience by annoying them
without any reason. By orders of the captain, Blas Ruyz de Fernan
Goncalez, they endured this annoyance, though sorely against their
will. The captain sent a message to the king asking him to bring the
Chinese to order. The king spoke fair words, but did nothing. Finally,
the anger of our men got beyond their control. On the Sunday after
Easter, when all had received communion, three or four were in the
town with the captain's permission. One of them came back with his
sword drawn, saying that the Chinese had chased and abused them, and
that they had not dared to violate the captain's orders. The troops
armed themselves, and, breaking away from all restraints, went to take
vengeance on the Chinese. I went along to calm the Chinese, if I could,
by speaking to them in their language, which I understood. They were
all armed with their catanas (a sort of hanger), and languinatas, or
long knives drawn to a point. I dared not put myself in their hands,
because I was told that they would be better pleased to get me than
anyone else. Soon after, sixty of our men in two companies, with some
of our Japanese and Indians, came ashore and instantly attacked the
Chinese. As our bullets took effect at such a distance that the latter
could not attack our troops hand to hand, the Chinese were routed;
and our men followed, killing them, until they had driven them out of
the town. The natives of the country took no part in the conflict on
either side. I saved as many lives as I could. The soldiers, seeing
themselves masters of the field, pursued the Chinese to their ships,
into which the Spaniards were able to shoot from the high banks. In
this way they soon got control of the ships, which was necessary,
because with these large ships they would easily have overcome our
smaller vessel, and thus all hope to escape from the anger of the
king would have been taken away from us. The king [15] was in great
wrath. To send a message to him, and to carry a statement of the
case, the father provincial, Fray Alonso Ximenez, was chosen. He
went accompanied by half of the forces, the rest of us remaining in
the ships. Several days were passed in sending messages backwards and
forwards, but the king would not receive the ambassadors in person. It
was plain that the king was planning to take all our lives. The demands
which he made would have put us entirely in his power; and, when the
father provincial asked permission to return and discuss them with the
rest of the forces, the king refused permission for anyone to return
except the father provincial alone. The intention of the king was to
wait for a rainy day, so that our powder should be moistened and we
be unable to use our arquebuses. When the father provincial came back,
he asked me if I would venture to go to the camp, confess the soldiers
and encourage them, and carry to the king our response declining to
follow his wishes. When I reached the forces near the palace of the
king, we did not consider the question of taking any answer to him,
but discussed two plans of escape. One was to withdraw in good order,
defending ourselves on the way; the other to attack the palace of
the king by night and strive to capture him, his son, or his wife,
whom we might use as hostages. Captain Diego Velloso declared that
if we should attack these Indians boldly they would retreat to the
mountains, and leave the field to us; but that if we should retreat
they would all attack us. He had had experience in this part of the
world, and what he said was confirmed by others, so that his plan was
accepted. That night I confessed the men and told them what under the
circumstances it was lawful for them to do, enjoining them to commit no
unnecessary violence, and to take no lives except in self-defense. The
attack was planned carefully, the troops being divided into a front
and a rear guard, and some of the soldiers being left with a barge
in the river near where we were encamped, with orders to capture
two Indian boats as soon as they should hear the noise of conflict,
so that we could make use of them in our retreat. I should have been
glad to remain with the barge in order to avoid being present at
the conflict, which promised to be sanguinary.] However, it seemed
necessary for me to accompany the rest, and, armed as they were,
and wearing no part of my habit except my scapular, I accompanied the
troops who advanced against the palace. We were immediately detected,
but succeeded in reaching the royal dwelling--which was built of wood,
like the other houses in the town, but was very large. We broke in
the doors, but the people all escaped through other doors; and thus,
though we gained control of the palace, it was empty and we had failed
in our purpose. I restrained the troops from burning the palace;
but we lighted some bonfires, so that we might see each other. One
of these saved my life, for as an Indian on an elephant was charging
upon me and was already very close to me, so that I looked around
at hearing the noise, the beast fled in alarm, being scared away
by the fire. The Indians were not frightened by our daring, as we
had falsely imagined that they would be, but gathered in a large
square near the palace to face us. Everything, however, was noise
and confusion among them, surprised as they were, and there was no
less among us; for the number of our opponents was so much greater
than theirs that, if darkness had not protected us, they could have
buried us in handfuls of sand. [Like Joshua, I would have held back
the dawn if I could. At daylight we were all in disorder. When the
Indians could distinguish us from themselves and saw how few we were,
they began to rain arrows upon us, several being wounded, Captain
Diego Velloso having one leg pinned to another, so that he could not
walk. Our troops were in entire confusion, some calling out that we
ought to come to an understanding with the Indians, others finding
fault with the plan that we had followed, until God was pleased to
give me courage that I might give courage to the others, and I took
upon myself the office of captain. Our last day, as we expected it
to be, was bright and clear. A body of courageous Indians charged
down the street at us, and their captain almost reached our line. I
confess that I wished to leap out upon him, not that I might kill him,
but that I might be the first to die, and not see the carnage which
I feared--or the worse than carnage, if we were taken alive. But
wisdom ruled me, and I ordered Captain Blas Ruiz to attack him with
his halberd; with one blow he thrust the Indian through, shield and
body. The death of their captain somewhat abated the courage of the
rest. God was pleased that one of our bullets should strike the king,
who was in the rear, unseen by us, animating his troops. We did not
learn of this for some days afterward, but we could see that the
Indians attacked us with less ardor. The Indians cut off our retreat
to the barge, and we were obliged to leave the soldiers who were with
it and to make our way, back by the road. As we marched along, we were
obliged to defend ourselves on all sides, and especially against the
crowd of Indians which followed in our rear. We could go but slowly,
burdened as we were with our arms, and being obliged to carry our
wounded.] Two arrows struck but did not wound me, one being caught by
a coat of mail which I wore, and the other by my shield. We suffered
greatly from hunger and thirst. When we came to some puddles with
rain-water in them (which was more mud than water), all drank of them,
and when I came there, though I was one of the last, I did the same;
and though the best had already been drunk, and the rest was mixed
with mud, it tasted better to me than any water that I ever drank in
my life. Under all these circumstances, we marched on this day, which
was the twelfth of May, four leguas by four o'clock in the afternoon,
[when we were obliged to halt because we had reached the bank of a
river. The Indians and we ourselves supposed that we should never
be able to cross. Here some of our men urged that we ought to give
ourselves up to the Indians as slaves for life; others declared that
we ought to attack them, and force them to kill us. At nightfall, rain
began; and the Indians, supposing that our powder would be moistened,
prepared to attack us. I passed along the line, confessing some and
encouraging all, though I must admit I was in great fear myself lest
before midnight we should be cut into bits, that each one of our
enemy might have his piece, as is the custom of Indians when they
are victorious. The storm ceased before they dared to attack, but
the river was still before us. There were two fords, one narrow and
deep; the other, wide and shallow, and at about ten o'clock at night I
decided that we ought to make the venture, and learn whether we were
to live or die. We chose the longer and shallower ford, marching as
quietly as we could, and leaving behind us a number of burning bits
of the matches that we used for firing our guns, tied on the bushes,
in order to make the Indians suppose that there was a large number
of troops there. Our retreat was covered by six courageous men with
two arquebuses each. When we entered the river, our vanguard, which
was already in the middle, began to retreat upon us, fearing the
people who were on the other bank, and their elephants, which they
said they were driving into the water. I succeeded in reanimating
them, and they fired a volley from the middle of the stream, where
the water reached the beards of many of them. The enemy fled, and
our passage was impeded only by the difficulty of dragging ourselves
through the mud. We marched on for the rest of the night very slowly,
with our clothes sticking to our bodies. On the morrow we found
some fruit-trees and broke our fast of two nights and one day. We
had great difficulty in carrying our wounded. One of the men being
left behind by all, I had to carry him myself with his arms over my
shoulders, for he was taller than I, until, after his wound began to
grow feverish, he was able to walk a little himself. Not long before
sunrise we reached the great river in which the ships were, but at a
distance of two leguas from us. We put three of the wounded who were
the hardest to carry into a little boat there, and ordered them to
row down the river and carry the news of what had happened, and to
direct the others to bring the ship near the bank where we were. In
the meantime we cut some trees and made a breastwork; and when the
Indians (who are not accustomed to attack by night) prepared to make
their last rush and overwhelm us, our ship came up and, approaching
the bank as closely as possible, played on the Indians with some
artillery, and fired at them with arquebuses. Under this protection
we succeeded in getting to the ship, being carried in two boat-loads.]