As most of the soldiers were absent with Balboa and Colmenares, and the mutineers were really in the minority, the temperate members of the community easily accomplished their purpose by seizing Perez, Corral, and other ringleaders and placing them in irons. They were confined in the fortress, where they had leisure to reflect upon their intemperate behavior, while a special committee of reputable citizens, appointed amid loud acclamations, was sent in search of the fugitive governor. As may be supposed, they did not have great difficulty in finding him, for he had kept in touch with the proceedings through his scouts, and had not penetrated the forest so far that he could not be readily recalled. He was discovered in camp, surrounded by his faithful soldiers, and the whole company seemed in high spirits over their success in the chase. Wigwams had been built beneath the wide-spreading branches of umbrageous trees, and hammocks swung in which Balboa and Hurtado were lazily reclining--the time being in the heat of the day, when the delegates approached them with the proffer of reinstatement. They had travelled fast and far, since early morning, and, having provided no refreshments for the journey, were faint, thirsty, and hungry. They looked longingly at the rude table made of palm-leaves spread upon the ground, and supplied with every kind of food and drink known to the colony. Indian cooks were busy at a barbecue over a camp-fire, the savory odors from which were simply maddening to the hungry delegates. They saw other Indians engaged in tapping the wild palms and ladling out calabashes full of palm-wine, while others still were preparing foaming chicha for their masters. Now, the throat of the committee's spokesman was dry, and his tongue also, so that when he essayed to speak his voice entirely failed him, and he looked helplessly at his companions. Perceiving the condition of the delegates, Balboa, who had been watching them narrowly from the corner of his eye, hastily leaped from his hammock and exclaimed: "Not a word, Don Pedro, not a word, until you and your friends have slaked your thirst with draughts of our native wine. Cruel it was of me to keep you standing there, while this _desayúno_ [breakfast] was being prepared, at which you must sit down, though it be so humble and poor of quality. Nay, I insist," he added, as the committee hesitated. "I know not your mission, _caballeros_; but, certes, you are faint and hungry, perchance thirsty also, so sit down, and answer not. Hither, mozos, with the calabashes of chicha and wine. Give my _compañeros_ to drink, without delay." The delegates gratefully accepted the food and drink so liberally profferred, and when they were refreshed the spokesman began his speech again: "Your excellency, we have come to ask you to return. The government goes ill without you--in truth, there is no government at all." "Ha? But what of Don Alonzo and the Bachelor Corral?"