Indignant at this, Cavendish resolved to send an expedition on shore to find their town and burn it. On the following day Captain Havers accordingly landed with a party of sixty well-armed men, who marched eight miles inland, till they were stopped by the steepness of the mountains at whose base they had arrived. On the way they saw vast numbers of cattle and horses wonderfully wild, as well as hares, coneys, partridges, and other birds. Finding no town, they were returning, when they espied two hundred Spanish horsemen; but as they marched along in battle array, the Dons thought it wise not to attack them, and they regained their ships that night. On the ist of April a party again went on shore to fill their water-casks at a bright stream some distance from the beach. They were thus engaged when a large band of horsemen and men on foot came pouring down upon them, and twelve were cut off, either killed or taken prisoners. The rest were rescued by the soldiers who were sent on shore, and the enemy, after a sharp fight, were beaten off, with the loss of twenty-four men. Notwithstanding this, by keeping a vigilant watch, Cavendish obtained water for all his ships. It was afterwards ascertained that the Spaniards executed as pirates six of the men they had captured, though they sailed with a commission from their Queen, who was at open war with Spain. Leaving Quintero, they anchored, on the 15th of April, off Moron Moreno. The natives who came off to the ships were friendly, but appeared to be a degraded race, their wigwams being of the roughest description, consisting merely of skins thrown over a pole supported on forked sticks. Their boats or _balsas_ were looked upon as ingenious contrivances. They were formed of two large inflated skins, secured together by sinews. On these they put to sea, and caught numbers of fish, with which they paid their tribute to the Spaniards, whose cruel system had reduced them to their present abject state.