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The colonists instructed Colmenares to bring Nicuesa back as soon as he could find him and to assure him they would be grateful to him if, on his arrival, he succeeded in calming the dissensions which rent the colony.
He had not been long here till he found himself as much straitened for provisions as at Bethlehem, on which account he sent one of his ships to St Domingo to request assistance from the governor. Scarcely was this vessel out of the port, before that with Colmenares arrived from the river Darien, with the invitation to take the command of the Spanish colony at that place.
Nicuessa began to recover his spirits, by the seasonable supply of provisions, and the comfortable intelligence brought by Colmenares, and gave thanks to God for this merciful relief.
Simultaneously Colmenares embarked sixty soldiers in the four uru and set out up the river to look for Zemaco. The young woman's brother served as guide.
After the shameful expulsion of Nicuesa, the colonists consumed the provisions Colmenares had brought, and soon, driven by hunger, they were forced to plunder the neighbourhood of the colony like wolves of the forest. A troop of about one hundred and thirty men was formed under the leadership of Vasco Nuñez, who organised them like a band of brigands.
The honors of the hospitality were confided to the eldest son of Comogre, a youth of more sagacity and intelligence than his brothers; he one day presented to Vasco Nuñez and to Colmenares, whom, from their manner and appearance, he recognized as chiefs of the party, sixty slaves, and four thousand pieces of gold of different weight.
It was necessary, therefore, to provide an associate for Quevedo, so that, if one died the other might survive and if both escaped death, the King would place more confidence in their dual report. Much time was spent in debating this point, and finally they decided to choose Roderigo Colmenares, whose name I have frequently mentioned.
It was not, however, till the calends of May of the year after their departure from Darien, that they arrived at the capital. Quevedo and Colmenares, the two envoys of the colonists of Darien, arrived there on the fifteenth of May, of the year 1513.
Opinions were thus divided, when the captain of two large vessels, Roderigo de Colmenares, arrived bringing a reinforcement of sixty men, a quantity of foodstuffs, and clothing. I must recount some particulars of the voyage of Colmenares. It was about the ides of October in the year 1510 that Colmenares sailed from Beata, the port of Hispaniola, where expeditions are usually fitted out.
Finding no person on the east side of the bay, where they thought to have found either their own men or those belonging to Hojeda, Colmenares suspected they were all dead, or had gone to some other place; but he thought fit to fire off some cannon, that they might hear him if still in the neighbourhood; besides which he made fires at night, and smokes by day on some of the adjacent high rocks.
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