resolution, brake in through the thickets, on both sides of them,
forcing them to fly, Friars and all! although divers of our men were
wounded, and one Cimaroon especially was run through with one of their
pikes, whose courage and mind served him so well notwithstanding, that
he revenged his own death ere he died, by killing him that had given him
that deadly wound.

We, with all speed, following this chase, entered the town of Venta
Cruz, being of about forty or fifty houses, which had both a Governor
and other officers and some fair houses, with many storehouses large and
strong for the wares, which brought thither from Nombre de Dios, by the
river of Chagres, so to be transported by mules to Panama: beside the
Monastery, where we found above a thousand bulls and pardons, newly sent
from Rome.

In those houses we found three gentlewomen, which had lately been
delivered in Nombre de Dios; because it hath been observed of long time,
as they reported to us, that no Spaniard or white woman could ever
be delivered in Nombre de Dios with safety of their children but that
within two or three days they died; notwithstanding that being born
and brought up in this Venta Cruz or Panama five or six years, and then
brought to Nombre de Dios, if they escaped sickness the first or second
month, they commonly lived in it as healthily as in any other place:
although no stranger (as they say) can endure there any long time,
without great danger of death or extreme sickness.

Though at our first coming into the town with arms so suddenly, these
ladies were in great fear, yet because our Captain had given straight
charge to all the Cimaroons (that while they were in his company, they
should never hurt any woman nor man that had not a weapon in his hand