Ojeda, who had by this time had enough of _Carthagena_, embarking, steered for the Gulf of _Urabá_. His people were much disheartened, and the aspect of the coast along which they passed was not such as to console them. They heard the roars of tigers and lions, and were disconcerted when one of their horses, passing along the bank of a river, was seized by an alligator and dragged under the water. Ojeda fixed his settlement on a spot to which he gave the name of _San Sebastian_, trusting that the martyr, who had himself been slain by arrows, would protect his Spaniards from a like fate. Here he erected a wooden fort and drew a stockade around the place. He further sent a ship to _San Domingo_ bearing a letter to his associate Enciso, in which he urged him to join him without delay. Meanwhile Ojeda determined to make a progress through his territory, and he set out with an armed band to visit a neighbouring _cacique_. On entering the forest, however, he and his followers were assailed by a shower of poisoned arrows from the covert, in consequence of which a number of his men died raving with torments. The rest retreated in confusion, and it was only when their provisions began to run short that Ojeda could persuade them once more to take the field. They were so beset, however, on all sides by the savages, and lost so many by their poisoned wounds, that the Spaniards would no longer venture forth at all, contenting themselves for food with such herbs and roots as they could find. Their numbers became so thinned by disease that it was with difficulty that sentinels could be procured to mount guard. Through all this Ojeda continued to bear a charmed life; and the Indians determined to test his invulnerability. When they next attacked the fort, and Ojeda as usual sallied forth to repel them, four of their picked marksmen were placed in ambush with orders to single him out. Three of the arrows struck his shield, doing him no injury; the fourth pierced his thigh. He was borne back to the settlement suffering great torments. He had the hardihood to order his doctor to apply two plates of iron, made red hot, to the orifices of his wound, an ordeal which he endured without flinching. Whether or not it was owing to this terrible treatment, his life was preserved, though at the cost of a fearful inflammation. Whilst the colony was enduring the straits above described, a strange ship was seen making for _San Sebastian_. It did not, however, as was expected, bring Enciso with the looked-for stores. It was a vessel that had belonged to a Genoese, of which a certain Talavera, with some other reckless debtors, had taken possession at _San Domingo_, and who, to the number of seventy, now came to swell the ranks of Ojeda’s followers. They sold their provisions to that governor, whose men were thus rescued from starvation.