After The Natives Were Driven Away, We Inquired Of The Soldier Who Gave Us
The Alarm Of The Enemy, What Had Become Of His Comrade?
He reported, that
a short time before he came to us, his companion went to the water side to
Cut down a palmito, and soon afterwards, hearing him cry out, being as he
supposed in the hands of the enemy, he ran towards us and gave the alarm.
The soldier thus amissing, named Berrio, was the only person who escaped
from Pontonchan unwounded. We went to seek for him, and found the palmito
he had begun to cut, around which the ground was much trodden, but no
trace of blood, from which we concluded he had been carried away alive.
Having sought him in vain for an hour, we returned on board with the water,
to the infinite joy of our companions, who were quite beside themselves on
its arrival. One man leapt into the boat immediately on its getting
along-side, and never ceased drinking till he died. We next proceeded to a
certain low island called los Baxos de los Martyres, where our
commanders ship struck on a sunken rock, and took in so much water that
she was near sinking; indeed we greatly feared that our utmost exertions
at the pump could not bring her into port. When two of our sailors, who
were from the Levant, were called upon to aid in pumping, they calmly
replied facetelo vos, or Do it yourselves, when we were almost exhausted
by fatigue, and the ship on the very point of going down.
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