he attacked a village in the interior twelve miles distant from the shore, where the fugitives from the coast-town had taken refuge.  These men, though naked, were warlike; they used wooden shields, some long and others curved, also long wooden swords, bows and arrows, and lances whose points were either hardened in the fire or made of bone.  Assisted by their guests, they made a desperate attack on the Spaniards, for they were excited by the misfortunes of those who had sought refuge with them, after having lost their wives and children, whose massacre by the Spaniards they had witnessed.  The Spaniards were defeated and both Hojeda’s lieutenant, Juan de la Cosa,[3] the first discoverer of gold in the sands of Uraba, and seventy soldiers fell.  The natives poisoned their arrows with the juice of a death-dealing herb.  The other Spaniards headed by Hojeda turned their backs and fled to the ships, where they remained, saddened and depressed by this calamity, until the arrival of another leader, Diego de Nicuesa, in command of twelve ships.  When Hojeda and Cosa sailed from Hispaniola, they had left Nicuesa in the port of Beata still busy with his preparations.  His force numbered seven hundred and eighty-five soldiers, for he was an older man than Hojeda, and he had greater authority; hence a larger number of volunteers, in choosing between the two leaders, preferred to join the expedition of Nicuesa; moreover it was reported that Veragua, which had been granted to Nicuesa by the royal patent, was richer in gold than Uraba, which Alonzo de Hojeda had obtained.

[Note 3:  Such was the sad end of the pilot of Columbus.  The oldest map of the New World, now preserved at Madrid, was the work of this noted cartographer.]

As soon as Nicuesa landed, the two leaders after conferring together, decided that the first victims should be avenged, so they set out that same night to attack the murderers of Cosa and his seventy companions.  It was the last watch of the night, when they surprised the natives, surrounding and setting fire to their village, which contained more than one hundred houses.  The usual number of inhabitants was tripled by the refugees who had there taken shelter.

The village was destroyed, for the houses were built of wood covered with palm-leaves.  Out of the great multitude of men and women, only six infants were spared, all the others having been murdered or burnt with their effects.  These children told the Spaniards that Cosa and the others had been cut into bits and devoured by their murderers.  It is thought indeed that the natives of Caramairi are of the same origin as the Caribs, or cannibals, who are eaters of human flesh.  Very little gold was found amongst the ashes.  It is in reality the thirst for gold, not less than the covetousness of new countries, which prompted the Spaniards to court such dangers.  Having thus avenged the death of Cosa and his companions, they returned to Carthagena.