God was pleased that one of our bullets should strike the king, who was in the rear, unseen by us, animating his troops. We did not learn of this for some days afterward, but we could see that the Indians attacked us with less ardor. The Indians cut off our retreat to the barge, and we were obliged to leave the soldiers who were with it and to make our way, back by the road. As we marched along, we were obliged to defend ourselves on all sides, and especially against the crowd of Indians which followed in our rear. We could go but slowly, burdened as we were with our arms, and being obliged to carry our wounded.] Two arrows struck but did not wound me, one being caught by a coat of mail which I wore, and the other by my shield. We suffered greatly from hunger and thirst. When we came to some puddles with rain-water in them (which was more mud than water), all drank of them, and when I came there, though I was one of the last, I did the same; and though the best had already been drunk, and the rest was mixed with mud, it tasted better to me than any water that I ever drank in my life. Under all these circumstances, we marched on this day, which was the twelfth of May, four leguas by four o'clock in the afternoon, [when we were obliged to halt because we had reached the bank of a river. The Indians and we ourselves supposed that we should never be able to cross. Here some of our men urged that we ought to give ourselves up to the Indians as slaves for life; others declared that we ought to attack them, and force them to kill us. At nightfall, rain began; and the Indians, supposing that our powder would be moistened, prepared to attack us. I passed along the line, confessing some and encouraging all, though I must admit I was in great fear myself lest before midnight we should be cut into bits, that each one of our enemy might have his piece, as is the custom of Indians when they are victorious. The storm ceased before they dared to attack, but the river was still before us. There were two fords, one narrow and deep; the other, wide and shallow, and at about ten o'clock at night I decided that we ought to make the venture, and learn whether we were to live or die. We chose the longer and shallower ford, marching as quietly as we could, and leaving behind us a number of burning bits of the matches that we used for firing our guns, tied on the bushes, in order to make the Indians suppose that there was a large number of troops there. Our retreat was covered by six courageous men with two arquebuses each. When we entered the river, our vanguard, which was already in the middle, began to retreat upon us, fearing the people who were on the other bank, and their elephants, which they said they were driving into the water. I succeeded in reanimating them, and they fired a volley from the middle of the stream, where the water reached the beards of many of them. The enemy fled, and our passage was impeded only by the difficulty of dragging ourselves