Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/148

128 Lazaro, and gave two spindles with a piece of cloth of gold; but, as the natives of the country did not allow them to remain in the town, or on land, they left, and went about ten leagues down the coast, where they again landed at a town called Machocobon, whose chief was Champoto. Here they were well received by the natives, though they were not allowed to come into the towns; and that night they slept out of their ships, and on land.

The natives, seeing this, attacked them on the morning of the following day, in such a manner that 26 Spaniards perished, and all the rest were wounded, and at last the Captain Francisco Fernandez de Cordoba, seeing this, escaped with those who were left to him by taking refuge in the ships. The said Captain, seeing that more than a quarter of his people had been killed, and that he himself had received 30 odd wounds, and was almost dead, and despairing of escape, returned with the ships and people to the said Island of Fernandina.