They came to a halt in a secluded spot about two leagues south of the town. Near by one of the Cimaroons scented out a Spanish soldier, whom they literally caught napping. He was one of the guard hired to protect the Lima treasurer’s train outward from Venta Cruz, and while waiting, knowing that he could get no rest till their safe arrival at Nombre de Dios, he had lain down in the grass and dropped asleep. He was terrorized at falling into the hands of the merciless Cimaroons, and being brought into the presence of Drake he plead for protection. He assured the captain, on the honour of a soldier, that that night he might have, if he would, “more gold, besides jewels and pearls of great price” than all his men could carry, and for his own part he asked only as much of the plunder as would suffice for himself and wife to live on comfortably. Holding the soldier for what service he might render, Drake divided his band into two companies and ambushed in long grass on either side of the road. He headed one company, and John Oxenham, with the chief of the Cimaroons, the other. Drake’s lay on one side of the road some fifty paces above Oxenham’s on the opposite side. The foremost company were to seize the mules by their heads as the team came up, while the “hindmost” secured the rear: for the mules tied together were always driven one after the other. The Englishmen all drew their shirts over their apparel by Drake’s order that they might be sure to know each other in the “pell mell of the night.”