It seemed, indeed, as if the expedition would
have to be abandoned, when, to their delirious joy, they found a great
supply of maize, which the Spaniards by some oversight had abandoned in a
granary. Many of them, in their starving condition, devoured this grain
raw. Others roasted it wrapped in banana leaves. The supply was soon
exhausted, but for a time it gave new vigor to the famished men.
On the following day all the food they found was a sack of bread and some
cats and dogs, all of which were greedily devoured; and farther on, at the
town of Cruces, the head of navigation on the Chagres, a number of vessels
of wine were discovered. This they hastily drank, with the result that all
the drinkers fell ill and fancied they were poisoned. Their illness,
however, was merely the natural effect of hasty drinking in their
exhausted state, and soon left them.
At this point a number of the men were sent back with the boats to where
the ships had been left, the force that continued the march amounting to
eleven hundred. With these the journey proceeded, the principal adventure
being an attack by a large body of Indians, who opposed the invaders with
much valor, only retreating when their chief was killed.
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