On The Left Hand We Had The Sea, And
Upon The Right Hand Great Woods, So That Of Necessity We
Must needs
pass on our way westward through those marshes, and going thus,
suddenly we were assaulted by the Indians,
A warlike kind of people,
which are in a manner as cannibals, although they do not feed upon
man's flesh as cannibals do.
These people are called Chichemici, and they used to wear their hair
long, even down to their knees; they do also colour their faces green,
yellow, red, and blue, which maketh them to seem very ugly and terrible
to behold. These people do keep wars against the Spaniards, of whom
they have been oftentimes very cruelly handled: for with the Spaniards
there is no mercy. They, perceiving us at our first coming on land,
supposed us to have been their enemies the bordering Spaniards; and
having, by their forerunners, descried what number we were, and how
feeble and weak, without armour or weapon, they suddenly, according to
their accustomed manner when they encounter with any people in warlike
sort, raised a terrible and huge cry, and so came running fiercely upon
us, shooting off their arrows as thick as hail, unto whose mercy we
were constrained to yield, not having amongst us any kind of armour,
nor yet weapon, saving one caliver and two old rusty swords, whereby to
make any resistance or to save ourselves; which, when they perceived
that we sought not any other than favour and mercy at their hands, and
that we were not their enemies the Spaniards, they had compassion on
us, and came and caused us all to sit down.
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