All The Rest Shared His Fate Except One Man Named John Da Noia A Native Of Cadiz; He By Good

Fortune fell into the water in the height of the combat, and gaining the shore by diving made his way

Through the thickest of the woods to the colony, where he brought the melancholy news of the destruction of all his companions.

This intelligence, joined to what had befallen themselves, so terrified our people, who were likewise afraid that the admiral, being at sea without a boat, might never reach a place from whence he could send them assistance, that they determined to abandon the colony, and would certainly have done so without orders, had not the mouth of the river been rendered impassable by bad weather and a heavy surf in which no boat could live, so that they could not even convey advice to the admiral of what had occurred. The admiral was in no little danger and perplexity, riding in an open road with no boat, and his complement much diminished. Those on shore were in great confusion and dismay, seeing those who had been killed in the boat, floating down the river, followed by the country crows, and this they looked upon as an evil omen, dreading that the same fate awaited themselves; and the more so as they perceived the Indians puffed up by their late success, and gave them not a minutes respite by reason of the ill chosen situation of the colony. There is no doubt that they would all have been destroyed if they had not removed to an open strand to the eastwards, where they constructed a defence of casks and other things, planting their cannon in convenient situations to defend themselves, the Indians not daring to come out of the wood because of the mischief that the bullets did among them.

While things were in this situation, the admiral waited in the utmost trouble and anxiety, suspecting what might have happened in consequence of his boat not returning, and he could not send another to inquire till the sea at the mouth of the river should become calmer. To add to our perplexity the kindred and children of Quibio, who were prisoners on board the Bermuda, found means to escape. They were kept under hatches all night, and the hatchway being so high that they could not reach it, the watch forgot one night to fasten it down in the usual manner by a chain, the more especially as some seamen slept on the top of the grating. That night the prisoners gathered the stone ballast in the hold into a heap under the grating, and standing on the stones forced open the grating, tumbling our people off, and several of the principal Indians leaped out and cast themselves into the sea. Our seamen took the alarm and fastened the chain, so that many of the Indians could not get out; but those who remained, in despair for not being able to get off with their companions, hanged themselves with such ropes as they could find, and they were all found dead next morning, with their feet and knees dragging on the bottom of the hold, the place not being high enough.

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