RESORT TO ARMS.
Soon, however, the differences between the rival parties were brought to an issue. The Adelantado received information that Porras was planning a descent on the ships, with the object of seizing the stores and capturing the admiral. Resolving to anticipate this attack, he placed himself at the head of fifty[25] devoted partisans of Columbus, and sallied out to engage the mutineers. A furious struggle ensued; but the Adelantado performed prodigies of valour, and his followers were better supplied with fire-arms than the rebels; so that the latter sustained a complete defeat, and their leader Porras was carried off as a prisoner to the ships.
[Footnote 25: It would appear from this number that either there had been some defection from the ranks of the mutineers or that more than half the Spaniards had remained faithful to the admiral.]