After much persuasion Nicaragua consented that “the idols which he worshipped should be cast down, and a cross set up in the temple, which was hung with fine cotton cloths; and thus the country was converted!” From the territories of this chief, Gonzales, being everywhere kindly received, penetrated the country in various directions, and saw many towns, which, says Herrara, “though not large, were good and populous;[12] and multitudes flocked along the ways to see the Spanish beards, and habits, and their horses, which were so strange to them.” While thus engaged, he encountered a warlike cazique, called _Diriangan_, a name that is perpetuated in that of the existing towns of _Diriambi_, _Diriomo_, and _Nindiri_, situated about fifty miles to the north-westward of Nicaragua. This chief was attended by five hundred men, with seventeen women, who wore many gold plates. They were drawn up in order, but without arms, “with ten colors, and trumpets after their fashion.” When Gonzales came near, the colors were spread, and the cazique touched his hand, as did also each of his followers; every man presenting him, at the same time, with one or two turkeys, and each woman with “twenty golden plates, fourteen carats fine, each weighing eighteen pieces of eight, and upwards.” ----- Footnote 12: Peter Martyr says that he found “six villages, every one of which had two thousand houses a-piece.”—“_De Novo Orbe_,” _Decade_ vi. p. 237. ----- Gonzales endeavored to persuade Diriangan to become a Christian; but the chief demanded three days to consult upon the subject “with his women and priests.” The Spaniards soon suspected that this was a _ruse_, and that it was his design to gather forces to attack and destroy them. In this they were not mistaken, for on the 17th of April, 1522, a body of several thousand Indians, “armed after their manner with cotton armor, head pieces, targets, wooden swords, bows, arrows, and darts, fell upon the Spaniards,” and had it not been for the timely notice of a confederate Indian, would inevitably have destroyed them. The strangers returned to the market place, and received the onset of the Indians there. Several of the Spaniards were knocked down; for it seems that here, as in Mexico, it was rather the desire of the natives to capture than kill their enemies, in order to offer the prisoners as sacrifices to their gods. The Spanish horse, in this, as in a thousand other instances, saved them from defeat, driving back the Indians in great terror.[13] Gonzales, considering the smallness of his force, resolved, upon this event, to retire from the country. In passing the town of their former entertainer, Nicaragua, they were however attacked, but nevertheless succeeded in making good their retreat. “The Spaniards,” adds Herrara, “gave a mighty account of the country upon their return to Panama; for which reason Pedro de Arias, resolved to found a colony there.” He accordingly soon after despatched Francisco Hernández de