They Made The
Signal With Their Drums To Commence A General Attack, And Immediately
Assailed Us With A Flight Of Arrows.
They then closed round us in their
canoes, fighting with lances and bows and arrows, and we had great
Difficulty to force our way to the shore, fighting up to our middles in
the water, and struggling to extricate ourselves from deep mud, in which
Cortes lost one of his buskins, and had to land barefooted. As soon as we
got on dry ground, Cortes placed himself at our head, calling out St
Jago, and we fell upon the enemy with great violence, whom we forced to
retreat within some circular entrenchments which they had constructed of
large timber. We soon drove them from these works, and made our way into
the town by certain small gateways, forcing them before us up the main
street to a second barricade, where they withstood us manfully, calling
out al calachioni, or kill the captain. While engaged at this
barricade, de Avila and the party which had marched from Point Palmares,
came up very opportunely to our assistance. He had been much retarded in
his march, as he had to break down several barricades in the path through
the marsh, so that he now arrived at the critical moment, for we too had
been detained a considerable time in making the formal summons by the
notary. We now drove the enemy before us, fighting manfully and never
turning their backs, to a large enclosed court, in which were three
idol-houses and several large halls.
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