vessel from Santiago had loaded with natives and provisions at the Guanaja Islands, and had returned to port. While the captain and crew were ashore for a carouse, the captives burst open the hatches, overpowered the nine men who had been left on guard, and sailed away midst the frantic gesticulations of the captain on shore. Reaching their islands in safety, they there encountered a brigantine with twenty-five Spaniards lying in wait for captives. Attacking them boldly, the savages drove them off toward Darien, and then burned the ship in which they themselves had made their enforced voyage to Cuba.
As a matter of course this atrocious conduct on the part of the savages demanded exemplary punishment. To this end two vessels were immediately despatched with soldiers who fell upon the inhabitants of Guanaja, put many to the sword, and carried away five hundred captives, beside securing gold to the value of twenty thousand pesos de oro.
Happy in the thought of engaging in an occupation so profitable, the chivalrous one hundred cheerfully adventured their Darien gold in a similar voyage, fitting out two vessels for the purpose, and choosing for their commander Francisco Hernandez de Córdoba, now a wealthy planter of Santi Espíritu.1 Velazquez added a third vessel, a small bark, in consideration of a share in the speculation.2 After laying in a supply of cassava, a bread made from the yucca root, and some salt beef, bacon, and glass beads for barter, the expedition departed from Santiago de Cuba, and went round to the north side of the island. There were in all one hundred and ten3 soldiers, with Antonio de Alaminos as chief pilot, Alonso Gonzalez priest, and Bernardino Iñiguez king’s treasurer. Here the chief pilot said to the commander, “Down from Cuba Island, in this sea of the west, my heart tells me there must be rich lands; because, when I sailed as a boy with the old admiral, I remember he inclined this way.” Suddenly the vision of Córdoba enlarged. Here might be something