About noon of the ninth day a steep hill was ascended, from whose summit,
to their delight, the buccaneers beheld the distant Pacific. But what gave
them much livelier joy was to see, in a valley below them, a great herd of
bulls, cows, horses, and asses, under the care of some Spaniards, who took
to flight the moment they saw the formidable force of invaders. Only an
utter lack of judgment, or the wildness of panic in the Spaniards, could
have induced them to leave this prey to their nearly starved foes. It was
an oversight which was to prove fatal to them. Then was the time to attack
instead of to feed their ruthless enemies.
The freebooters, faint with famine and fatigue, gained new strength at the
sight of the welcome herd of food animals. They rushed hastily down and
killed a large number of them, devouring the raw flesh with such a fury of
hunger that the blood ran in streams from their lips. What could not be
eaten was taken away to serve for a future supply. As yet Panama had not
been seen, but soon, from a hill-top, they discerned its distant towers.
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