The administration of Pedrarias was replete with disaster from beginning to end, and every enterprise he undertook ended in misfortune and disgrace. A valiant captain, Francisco Becerra, undertook to invade the province of Zenu, where, according to report, gold in unlimited quantities could be drawn from the rivers in nets. He had one hundred and eighty men and three small cannon when he entered the forest and bade farewell to the settlement; but never a man of that gallant command came back, nor were the cannon ever recovered. All were swallowed up in the forest, as though the earth had opened and taken the invaders into a subterranean tomb. While Balboa was detained inactive at the settlement, these various expeditions under inexperienced commanders overran the country, and effected nothing more than had been already--and better--done by the discredited commander who was being consumed by vexation and despair. All the littoral Indians of Darien had been reduced to subjection by him, and the most that was effected by Pedrarias was a reconquest, which was worse than useless, as it roused the rage of the caciques and provoked retaliation. Among those who, though powerful and warlike, Balboa had overcome and compelled to sue for peace was the mountain cacique Tubanamá. He was blunderingly attacked, by orders of Pedrarias, and not only repulsed the Spaniards from his stronghold, but drove them, bootless, back to Darien, where the survivors arrived breathless and panic-stricken. Stripping the slain Spaniards as they lay in the forest, Tubanamá displayed their bloody shirts on poles as banners, and marched his warriors around the walls, striking terror and dismay to the hearts of all within the settlement. The garrison was beleaguered, foraging-parties assaulted, sorties ambuscaded, and such was the alarm, says the good Bishop Las Casas in his history, that the people feared to be burned within their dwellings. "They kept a watchful eye upon the mountains, the plains, the waving branches of the trees, for their imaginations were infected by their fears. If they looked towards the land, the long, rustling grass appeared to them to be moving hosts of savages; if they looked towards the sea, they beheld fleets of canoes in the distance. Pedrarias endeavored to hush all rumors that might increase the alarm; at the same time he ordered the smelting-house to be closed, which was never done except in time of war. This was done at the suggestion of the bishop, who caused prayers to be offered and fasts proclaimed in order to avert the impending calamities."