La Relación - page 28

La Relación - page 28

that at sunset we rounded a point of land where we found fair weather and shelter. Many canoes came towards us with Indians who spoke to us, but turned back not wanting to wait for us. They were large, handsome people and they had no bows or arrows with them. We followed them to their dwellings, which were nearby at the water's edge, and landed. In front of the lodges we found many jugs of water and a large quantity of cooked fish. The Chief of those lands offered all those things to the Governor, and took him to his lodge.

Their dwellings were made of mats and appeared to be permanent. After we entered the Chief's lodge, he gave us much fish and we gave him some of the corn we had brought. They ate it in our presence, asked for more, and we gave it to them. The Governor gave him many trinkets, but while he was in the Chief's lodge half an hour into the night, the Indians suddenly attacked us and the very sick men who were lying on the beach. And they also attacked the Chief's lodge where the Governor was and injured his face with a rock. Our men who were there seized the Chief, but since he was so near his own men, he got away from them, leaving in their hands a sable mantle, which I think are the best in the world, with a scent quite like amber and musk which can be detected from a great distance. We saw others there, but none was like this one. When we saw that the Governor was wounded, those of us who were there put him on a boat and had most of our men take shelter on theirs, while fifty of us remained on land to fight the Indians. They attacked us three times that night, and with such force that each time they compelled us to withdraw more than the distance of a stone's throw. Every one of us was wounded, and I was wounded in the face. They had few arrows but

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