the fort was in our possession, without our having lost a single man, or even had one wounded.  There were six vessels on the river at the time.  They took one brig, and an unfinished galley and another vessel, which had been just discharged of a load of rich merchandise, and sunk.  These vessels were placed at the entrance to the bar to blockade the harbor, as they expected we would come by sea.  Another, laden with wine and merchandise, was near the port.  She refused to surrender, and spread her sails, when they fired on her from the fort, and sunk her in a spot where neither the vessel nor cargo will be lost.

The taking of this fort gained us many valuable objects, namely, two hundred pikes, a hundred and twenty helmets, a quantity of arquebuses and shields, a quantity of clothing, linen, fine cloths, two hundred tons of flour, a good many barrels of biscuit, two hundred bushels of wheat, three horses, four asses, and two she-asses, hogs, tallow, books, furnace, flour-mill, and many other things of little value.  But the greatest advantage of this victory is certainly the triumph which our Lord has granted us, and which will be the means of the holy Gospel being introduced into this country, a thing necessary to prevent the loss of many souls....

When we had reached the sea, we went about three leagues along the coast in search of our comrades.  It was about ten o’clock at night when we met them, and there was a mutual rejoicing at having found each other.  Not far off we saw the camp fires of our enemies, and our general ordered two of our soldiers to go and reconnoiter them, concealing themselves in the bushes, and to observe well the ground where they were encamped, so as to know what could be done.  About two o’clock the men returned, saying that the enemy was on the other side of the river, and that we could not get at them.  Immediately the general ordered two soldiers and four sailors to return to where we bad left the boats, and bring them down the river, so that we might pass over to where the enemy was.  Then he marched his troops forward to the river, and we arrived before daylight.  We concealed ourselves in a hollow between the sandhills, with the Indians who were with us; and, when it became light, we saw a great many of the enemy go down to the river to get shell-fish for food.  Soon after we saw a flag hoisted, as a war-signal.

Our general, who was observing all that, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, said to us, “I intend to change these clothes for those of a sailor, and take a Frenchman with me (one of those whom we had brought with us from Spain), and we will go and talk with these Frenchmen.  Perhaps they are without supplies, and would be glad to surrender without fighting.”  He had scarcely finished speaking before he put his plan into execution.  As soon as he had called to them, one of them swam toward and spoke to him; told him of their having been shipwrecked, and the distress they were in; that they had not eaten bread