by the defenses of ditches, very stout stockades, and a very large supply of weapons--that very few of the enemy, without receiving any hurt, could with the use of only stones kill a million men who might attack them in that part. Notwithstanding this, those who were sent to reconnoiter the road were so blinded by their overweening valor and spirit (truly Spanish) that, thinking that they could easily gain all, they went ahead to attack one of the three forts, without heeding the order that the general had given them; thereby they encountered, for themselves and the rest of the vanguard, great damage from the three forts, without doing anything to the enemy. More than twenty [of the Spaniards] were killed and more than eighty badly wounded. Much greater would have been the destruction of our men--for, not considering those who were falling, they continued to involve themselves and the others further, with false rumors of victory--had it not been that the governor, placing himself in the greatest danger, where the balls were raining down, and where they wounded his squire (and others who were very near him fell dead), and recognizing that victory was impossible in that part, and prudently hiding the disorder which had happened, in order not to discourage his soldiers, caused them all, both whole and wounded, to retire. This he did with so great ease and gallantry on one side, while on the other he confronted the enemy with so great valor, with sword in hand; had he not done that not a single man would have remained alive, since the enemy were numerous, the road full of precipices, and our men badly impeded with the wounded and more than two hours of fighting. That night the governor passed, with those who remained unhurt, in the retreat at the brow of the hill--at the greatest risk of perishing, if the enemy had made a sally, however vigilant our men had been. But God delivered them from that danger; for the enemy did not make a sally, because they made a great feast that night over the good result of having, as they imagined, killed the governor. Already by this time the sick were in the camp, in which miraculous cures of very deadly wounds occurred. One had been shot through the head from temple to temple; another was shot through the mouth by a ball that passed up through the stomach; another had several poisoned dart-points (here called sompites) left sticking in his throat; and both those and all the others, excepting two or three who did not allow themselves to be treated, are today alive and well. They, and all, attribute their miraculous health to the special favor with which God chose to repay the holy zeal with which all risked their lives for His Divine Majesty.