Page:Narrative of the Proceedings of Pedrarias Davila (Haklyut, 34).djvu/74

 never seen Spaniards, and held such people to have fallen from the skies, and they would not attack them until they knew whether they would die. Thus the Spaniards went from Nata and Escoria, without having recourse to war, and came to the province of Paris, which is twelve leagues from Nata to the westward; for nearly all this land, as far as Nicaragua, trends to the westward. The chief of Paris, with his people, concealed himself from the Spaniards, who had brought two principal men from Nata as guides and interpreters. These men, seeing that no natives appeared, proposed to go in search of them, and get speech with the chief. They started one morning, and came back in the afternoon with a boy, who said that the chief was in a village three or four leagues off, with all his household and wives. They were sent with the boy to ask him to come, as the strangers only desired peace and friendship. The chief, whose name was Quitatara, sent back eleven castellanos of good gold, saying that his women sent them, and asking the Spaniards to leave his country, as he did not wish to see them. The captain, moved to avarice at the sight of this gold, sent back to summon him, saying that if he did not come, he would go in search of him. The chief had spies to watch when the Christians should set out from the camp. When the captain took one road and the Indians another, the chief fell upon those who remained in the camp with such fury that the Spaniards were defeated, and fled to a height, with the loss of some killed and others wounded. The flight was so hurried that the Indians took the hut where there were fifty and more thousand pesos of gold, which up to that time had been collected. It was set on fire before all the gold could be taken out, and, the fire reaching it, a bag containing eight pesos was burnt, for which reason they left it there. The captain, as he was travelling by land in the morning, met the Indians coming in warlike array, towards the place where the Christians