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We were to start in two swift canoes piraguas, he styled them and, keeping at first under the lee of the shore, follow the river to its mouth, then proceed up the coast along the safe passage afforded by an outlying chain of islands.
Don Garcia arrived with his fleet in safety in the Bay of Conception, in the month of April 1557, and came to anchor near the island of Quiriquina, which was chosen as the headquarters as a place of great security. The scanty population of the island attempted to oppose the disembarkation of the troops, but being soon dispersed by the artillery, they retired in their piraguas to the continent.
I now sent Mr Brooks in our yawl to attack them, when he found them all ashore, and brought away their piraguas with two prisoners, a negro and a mulatto, the rest taking refuge in the woods. We took all their provisions, consisting of a small quantity of pork, with plantains, some green, some ripe, and some dried.
Indeed the famished Spaniards had scarcely completed their encampment, when numerous piraguas arrived from the different islands, loaded with maize, fruit, and fish, all of which the natives distributed gratuitously among them.
In about half an hour after our arrival, two large canoes or piraguas full of Mexicans were seen coming off from the shore towards the flag-ship . On coming aboard, they inquired for the Tlatoan, or general, who was pointed out to them by Donna Marina, who acted as interpreter on the occasion with the aid of Aguilar.
Their native barks or piraguas are formed of from three to five planks, sewed together, and caulked with a species of moss which grows on a particular shrub. There are vast numbers of these barks all through the archipelago, which they manage very dexterously both with sails and oars, and the natives often venture as far as Conception in these frail vessels.
Still brighter grew the heavens; the thin clouds drew aside, and the crescent of a waning moon spilled glory over us. And now our dark piraguas sped over the surface of a silver stream, and every paddle-blade dripped diamonds. It is a noble river, this San Juan, with its broad sweeps and curves.
In the adjacent fields are numerous plantations of sugar and cocoa, in which are many tall and beautiful trees, of whose timber houses may be built, and ships. Among these are many handsome and proportionable cedars, seven or eight feet about, of which they can build boats and ships, so as to bear only one great sail; such vessels being called piraguas.
The Spaniards now broke up their piraguas, keeping the iron work for future service, and advanced farther into the country. In four days they reached a town called Chicoza , well situated in a fertile country among brooks and surrounded by abundance of fruit trees.
In fifteen days the two piraguas were finished for crossing the river, although some damage was done by the Indians from the opposite side by means of their canoes; but the Spaniards drove them always away, as they kept a constant guard concealed behind trenches.
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