120
VOYAGES
taking so many.
A N D D I S C O V E R I E S OF
They came to the forlorn agreement, therefore,
to remain until famine, sickness, and the poisoned arrows of the Indians should reduce their number to the capacity of the brigan足 tines.
A brief space of time was sufficient for the purpose.
They then prepared for the voyage.
Four mares which had
been kept alive, as terrors to the Indians, were killed and salted for sea-stores.
Then taking whatever other articles of provisions
remained, they embarked and made sail.
One brigantine was
commanded by Pizarro, the other by one Valenzuela. They had not proceeded far when, in a storm, a sea struck the crazy vessel of Valenzuela with such violence as to cause it to founder with all its crew.
The other brigantine was so near that
the mariners witnessed the struggles of their drowning compan足 ions, and heard their cries.
Some of the sailors, with the common
disposition to the marvelous, declared that they beheld a great whale, or some other monster of the deep, strike the vessel with its tail, and either stave in its sides or shatter the rudder, so as to cause the shipwreck.*
The surviving brigantine then made the
best of its way to the harbor of Carthagena, to seek provisions. Such was the disastrous account rendered to the Bachelor by Pizarro, of his destined jurisdiction.
Enciso, however, was of a
confident mind and sanguine temperament, and trusted to restore all things to order and prosperity on his arrival. * Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. vii. cap. 10.