[357] This report will be found at the end of the Commentaries.
[CHAPTER THE SEVENTY-THIRD.]
What befell the governor and his people in the port of Los Reyes.
THE governor remained three months in this port of Los Reyes with all his people ill with fever, waiting till God should be pleased to restore them to health, and the waters should subside to enable them to undertake the exploration of the country. But every day the sickness increased and the waters rose. We were, therefore, obliged to withdraw from the port of Los Reyes in great trouble. Besides the illness by which we were attacked, there were so many mosquitoes of various kinds that we could neither sleep nor rest day and night; the sufferings we endured from this plague were even worse than the fever. Because of these inconveniences, and as the officers had requested him to abandon the port and to return to the city of Ascension, where the people could recover, the governor having referred to the clergy and officers, decided on withdrawing. Yet he would not allow the Christians to take with them about a hundred girls, whom the natives of Los Reyes, upon the governor’s arrival, had offered to the captains and officers of distinction, so as to be on good terms with them, leaving them to do what they pleased with the girls. The motive of this refusal was to avoid the offence against God done in this way. He ordered, at the moment of departure, the fathers of these girls to receive them back into their houses till our return, being unwilling that their parents should be dissatisfied and the country scandalised because of this. To give more importance to this action of his, he published a rescript of His Majesty, forbidding, under the severest penalty, anybody from removing natives from their homes. The natives were well satisfied with this measure, but the Spaniards were greatly discontented, some of them felt ill-disposed towards him, and from that time he was detested by the majority. This was the motive or pretext for their subsequent conduct, as I shall relate further on. All the people, Christians and Indians, having embarked, he came in twelve days to the port of Ascension, though it had taken two months to ascend the same way. Though sick to death, the people derived strength from their desire to return home. The perils and difficulties of this voyage were certainly not light, for the men were not strong enough to handle their arms to resist the enemy, or make use of an oar to help to steer the vessels; and had it not been for the culverins we carried, our trouble would have been greater. We drew the canoes of the Indians into the midst of the brigantines to protect them from the enemy’s attacks till we came to their homes, and for better security the governor distributed some Christians in the canoes.
We took every precaution, and kept a sharp look-out for the enemy, when, as we were passing the lands of the Guaxarapos, these natives attacked us suddenly with a number of canoes. They assailed some rafts that were being taken in reserve, and wounded a Christian with a dart, which pierced him in the breast, so that he fell dead on the spot. His name was Miranda, and he came from Valladolid. They also wounded some of our Indians, and would have caused us more losses had it not been for our culverins. The weakness of the soldiers was the cause of it.
On the 8th April of the same year we arrived at the town of Ascension with our troops, our Guaranís, and our vessels. The Governor and the Christians that were with him were all sick and weak. On his arrival, Captain Salazar told him that he had assembled over 20,000 Indians and a large number of canoes to go out against the Agaces, for, since the departure of the governor, they had not ceased making war upon the Christians and the natives, plundering and slaying them, taking from them wives and children, burning villages and committing every kind of excess. When the governor arrived, the expedition to punish the Agaces had not yet started. We found the caravel ordered by the governor nearly finished. He had intended sending it, as soon as it was ready, to bear information to His Majesty of all that had happened in his voyage of discovery and all that had passed in the country. Orders were now given to complete the caravel.