In the fleet with Pedrarias a vast amount of provisions had been brought to Darien, which with economy would have lasted many months. At first the colonists revelled in abundance; then it was discovered that one ship-load of supplies had been spoiled by sea-water, and soon after another, which had been deposited in a hut on shore, was destroyed by fire. In a short time, in fact, the colonists found themselves face to face with famine, the ravages of which, combined with the evils of the tropical climate, produced a pestilence. In the course of a month no less than seven hundred persons perished, all of them cavaliers who had come with Pedrarias from Spain. A ship-load of the survivors fled the colony, going to Cuba, and a few broken-hearted adventurers reached their homes in Spain, which they had mortgaged for arms and equipments they never had occasion to use. Those who remained at Darien were soon reduced to the last extremity of hunger and despair. They wandered through the streets of Antigua begging for food, and once-wealthy cavaliers of proudest lineage might have been seen bartering their rich ornaments and vestments for a few mouthfuls of cassava bread. Some, who had never before labored with their hands, hired themselves out as wood-cutters or burden-bearers, merely to sustain existence, while others, in the pangs of starvation, fed on grass and the leaves of trees. One day, says the historian, "a noble knight rushed into the main street of Antigua crying aloud that he was dying of hunger, and, in sight of the whole population, fell, and rendered up his soul. So many perished daily that it was impossible to give them Christian burial, and carts were used for carrying away the dead, as in times of pestilence." Pedrarias himself was taken with a fever, and, with his wife, was carried to a salubrious spot among the hills, where he soon recovered. Thence he sent orders for the old soldiers to set out, under his second in command, Juan de Ayora, to visit the caciques with whom Balboa had negotiated treaties when on his journey to the sea. This he did with an eye to the occupation of the territory, in order to represent at court that, while his rival might have discovered certain provinces, with their inhabitants, he was the first to occupy and colonize beyond the region of the coast. But Ayora, though he had with him a greater number of soldiers than Balboa had ever commanded in one body, conducted himself with such a reckless disregard for the rights of the natives--seizing the women and children, and putting many Indians to the torture--that the caciques united against and drove him from their territory; so the expedition ended in disaster.