HKB
had already made some roads, and no Indians could be taken, because the country was full of marsh grounds, and in some places full of very high and thick woods.
From the town of Ucita the Governor sent the Alcalde mayor, Baltasar de Gallegos, with forty horsemen and eighty footmen into the country to see if they could take any Indians; and the Captain John Rodriguez Lobillo another way with fifty footmen: the most of them were swordsmen and targeters, and the rest were shot and crossbow-men. They passed through a country full of bogs, where horses could not travel. Half a league from the camp they lighted upon, certain cabins of Indians near a river. The people that were in them leaped into the river, yet they took four Indian women. And twenty Indians charged us and so distressed us, that we were forced to retire to our camp, being, as they are, exceeding ready with their weapons. It is a people so warlike and so nimble, that they care not a whit for any footmen. For if their enemies charge them they run away, and if they turn their backs they are presently upon them. And the thing that they most flee is the shot of an arrow. They never stand still, but are always running and traversing from one place to another, by reason whereof neither crossbow nor arquebuss can aim at them; and before one crossbowman can make one shot an Indian will discharge three or four arrows, and he seldom misseth what he shooteth at. An arrow where it findeth no armor, pierceth as deeply as a crossbow. Their bows are very long, and their arrows are made of certain canes like reeds, very heavy, and so strong that a sharp cane passeth through a target. Some they arm in the point with a sharp bone of a fish like a chisel, and in others they fasten certain stones like points of diamonds. For the most part when they light upon an armor they break in the place where they are bound together. Those of cane do split and pierce a coat of mail, and are more hurtful than the other. John Rodriguez Lobillo returned to the camp with six men wounded, whereof one died; and brought the four Indian women which Baltasar Gallegos had taken in the cabins or cottages. Two leagues from the town, coming into the plain field, he espied ten or eleven Indians, among whom was a Christian, which was naked and scorched with the sun, and had his arms razed after the manner of the Indians, and differed nothing at all from them. And as soon as the horsemen saw them they ran toward them. The Indians fled, and some of them hid themselves in a wood, and they overtook two or three of them which were wounded; and the Christian seeing a horseman run upon him with his lance, began to cry out, "Sirs, I am a Christian, slay me not, nor these Indians, for they have saved my life." And straightway he called them and put them out of fear, and they came forth of the wood unto them. The horsemen took both the Christian and the Indians up behind them, and toward night came into the camp with much joy; which thing being known by the Governor, and them that remained in the camp, they were received with the like.