76
VOYAGES
A N D D I S C O V E R I E S OF
wasted with hunger and fatigue that he could not speak.
They
bore him to the firm land ; made a fire on the shore to warm him, for he was chilled with the damp and cold of his hiding-place, and when he was a little revived they gave him food and wine. In this way he gradually recovered strength to tell his doleful story.* He had succeeded in cutting his way through the host of sava ges, and attaining the woody skirts of the mountains ; but when he found himself alone, and that all his brave men had been cut off, he was ready to yield up in despair.
Bitterly did he reproach
himself for having disregarded the advice of the veteran La Cosa, and deeply did he deplore the loss of that loyal follower, who had fallen a victim to his devotion.
He scarce knew which way to
bend his course, but continued on, in the darkness of the night and of the forest, until out of hearing of the yells of triumph uttered by the savages over the bodies of his men.
"When the
day broke, he sought the rudest parts of the mountains, and hid himself until the night ; then struggling forward among rocks, and precipices, and matted forests, he made his way to the sea side, but was too much exhausted to reach the ships.
Indeed it
was wonderful that one so small of frame should have been able
* The picture here given is so much like romance, that the author quotes his authority at length :—" Llegaron adonde havia, junto al agua de la mar, unos Manglares, que son arboles, que siempre nacen, i crecen i permanecen dientro del agua de la mar, con grandes raices, asidas, i enmaranadas Unas con otras, i alii metido, i escondido hallaron à Alonso de Ojeda, con su espada en la mano, i la rodela en las espaldas, i en alla sobre trecientas, seîîales de flechazos.
Estabo descaido de hambre, que no podia hechar de si la habla ; i si no
fuera tan robusto, aunque chico de cuerpo, fiiera muerto." Las Casas, lib. ii. cap. 58. M S .
Herrera, Hist. Ind., d. i. lib. vii. cap. 15.