posed. At night they lit their fires and again attempted to make a secret retreat. The Indians, however, were as usual on their traces, and wounded several with arrows. Thus pressed and goaded, the Spaniards became desperate, and fought like madmen, rushing upon the very darts of the enemy.

"Morales now resorted to an inhuman and fruitless expedient to retard his pursuers. He caused several Indian prisoners to be slain, hoping that their friends would stop to lament over them; but the sight of their mangled bodies only increased the fury of the savages and the obstinacy of their pursuit.

"For nine days were the Spaniards hunted in this manner about the woods and mountains, the swamps and fens, wandering they knew not whither, and returning upon their steps, until, to their dismay, they found themselves in the very place where, several days previously, they had been surrounded by the three squadrons.

Many now began to despair of ever escaping with life from this trackless wilderness, thus teeming with deadly foes. It was with difficulty their commanders could rally their spirits, and encourage them to persevere. Entering a thick forest they were again assailed by a band of Indians, but despair and fury gave them strength: they fought like wild beasts rather than like men, and routed the foe with dreadful carnage. They had hoped to gain a breathing time by this victory, but a new distress attended them. They got entangled in one of those deep and dismal marshes which abound on those coasts, and in which the wanderer is often drowned or suffocated. For a whole day they toiled through brake and bramble, and miry fen, with the water reaching to their girdles. At length they extricated themselves from the swamp, and arrived at the sea shore. The tide was out, but was about to return, and on this coast it rises rapidly to a great height. Fearing to be

overwhelmed by the rising surf, they hastened to climb a rock out of reach of the swelling waters. Here they threw themselves on the earth panting with fatigue and abandoned to despair. A savage wilderness filled with still more savage foes, was on one side, on the other the roaring sea. How were they to extricate themselves from these surrounding perils? While reflecting on their desperate situation, they heard the voices of Indians. On looking cautiously round, they beheld four canoes entering a neighbouring creek. A party was immediately dispatched, who came upon the savages by surprise, drove them into the woods, and seized upon the canoes. In these frail barks the Spaniards escaped from their perilous neighbourhood, and, traversing the gulf of St. Michael, landed in a less hostile part, from whence they set out a second time across the mountains.

"It is needless to recount the other hardships they endured, and their further conflicts with the Indians; suffice it to say, after a series of almost incredible sufferings and disasters, they at length arrived in a battered and emaciated condition at Darien. Throughout all their toils and troubles, however, they had managed to preserve a part of the treasure they had gained in the islands; especially the pearls given them by the cacique of Isla Rica. These were objects of universal admiration. One of them was put up at auction, and bought by Pedrarias, and was afterwards presented by his wife Doña Isabella de Bobadilla to the Empress, who, in return, gave her four thousand ducats.*

"Such was the cupidity of the colonists, that the sight of these pearls and the reputed wealth of the islands of the southern sea, and the kingdoms on its borders, made far greater impression on the public mind, than the tale told by

*Herrera, Hist. Ind. d. 2, l. i. c. 4.

the adventurers of all the horrors they had past; and every one was eager to seek these wealthy regions beyond the mountains."*

Other expeditions set on foot by Pedrarias ended badly. One of these was to the province of Zenu. A captain named Francisco Becerra, penetrated into this country at the head of one hundred and eighty men, but neither the commander nor any of his men returned. They were all destroyed by the Indians. Another band was defeated by Tubanama. In fine, the colony became so weakened by these repeated losses, and the savages so emboldened by success, that the latter beleaguered it with their forces, harassed it by assaults and ambuscades, and reduced it to great extremity.t

At this period there was an important expedition in another part of South America; not however by Pedrarias or under his authority. Juan Diaz de Solis discovered a river, the great extent of which made him name it Mar Dulce, or the Sea of Sweet Water. After the visit of Sebastian Cabot, at a later period, it was called the Rio de la Plata. The year of the discovery by Juan Diaz de Solis is variously stated sometimes in 1512, sometimes in 1515 or 1516. In one of these latter years, Juan Diaz de Solis and fifty men were massacred by the Indians near the cape of Santa Maria.‡

CHAPTER XXIX.

Of Juan Ponce de Leon; his voyage to Guadaloupe in 1515; the visit this year of Diego Columbus to Spain, and the death of Bartholomew Columbus; also, of Sebastian Cabot, from 1515 to 1518.

After the discovery of Florida by Juan Ponce de Leon, he went to Spain, to make report of it to the king.

"The hardy old cavalier experienced much raillery from the witlings of the court, on account of his visionary voyage, though many wise men had been as credulous as himself at the outset. The king, however, received him with great favour, and conferred on him the title of Adelantado of Bimini and Florida, which last was as yet considered an island. Permission was also granted him to recruit men, either in Spain or in the colonies, for a settlement in Florida; but he deferred entering on his command for the present, being probably discouraged and impoverished by the losses in his last expedition, or finding a difficulty in enlisting adventurers. At length another enterprise presented itself. The Caribs had by this time become a terror to the Spanish inhabitants of many of the islands, making descents upon the coasts and carrying off captives, who, it was supposed, were doomed to be devoured by these cannibals. So frequent were their invasions of the island of Porto Rico, that it was feared they would ultimately oblige the Spaniards to abandon it.

"At length King Ferdinand, in 1514, ordered that three ships, well armed and manned, should be fitted out in Se

ville, destined to scour the islands of the Caribs, and to free the seas from those cannibal marauders. The command of the armada was given to Juan Ponce de Leon, from his knowledge in Indian warfare, and his varied and rough experience which had mingled in him the soldier with the sailor. He was instructed, in the first place, to assail the Caribs of those islands most contiguous and dangerous to Porto Rico, and then to make war on those of the coast of Terra Firma, in the neighbourhood of Carthagena. He was afterwards to take the captaincy of Porto Rico, and to attend to the repartimientos or distributions of the Indians, in conjunction with a person to be appointed by Diego Columbus.

"The enterprise suited the soldier-like spirit of Juan Ponce de Leon, and the gallant old cavalier set sail, full of confidence, in January 1515, and steered direct for the Caribbees, with a determination to give a wholesome castigation to the whole savage archipelago. Arriving at the island of Guadaloupe, he cast anchor, and sent men on shore for wood and water, and women to wash the clothing of the crews, with a party of soldiers to mount guard. "Juan Ponce had not been as wary as usual, or he had to deal with savages unusually adroit in warfare. the people were scattered carelessly on shore, the Caribs rushed forth from an ambuscade, killed the greater part of the men, and carried off the women to the mountains.

While

"This blow, at the very outset of his vaunted expedition, sank deep into the heart of Juan Ponce, and put an end to all his military excitement. Humbled and mortified, he set sail for the island of Porto Rico, where he relinquished all further prosecution of the enterprise, under pretext of ill health, and gave the command of the squadron to a captain named Zuñiga; but it is surmised that his malady was not so much of the flesh as of the spirit. He remained in Porto Rico as governor; but, having grown