5 towards the door o f the great cahbin. The Roatfwain immedi-
, ately reprimanded them, and ordered them to he gone. On this
Orellana fpoke to his followers in his native language, when four
o f them drew off, two towards each gangway, and the Chief and
; the fix remaining Indians, feemed to be {lowly quitting the quarter-
deck. When the detached Indians had taken pofleflion of the
gangway, Orellana placed his hands hollow to his mouth, and
bellowed out the war-cry ufed by thofa favag.es, which is faid to
be the harlheft and moft terrifying found known in nature. This
. hideous yell w.as thefignal for beginning the maffacre: for on this
they all drew their knives, and brandithed their prepared doubleheaded
(hot j and the fix with their Chief, which remained on the
quarter-deck, immediately fell on the Spaniards, who were intet-
: mingled with them, and laid near forty o f them at their feet, of
which above twenty were killed on the fpot, and the reft difabled.
. Many of the Officers, in the beginning of the tumult, puftied
into the great cabbin, where they put out the lights, and barri-
ccadoed the door: whilft o f the others, who had avoided.the firft
fury of the Indians, fome endeavoured to efcape along the gangways
into the forecaftle, where the Indians, placed on purpofe,
; ftabbed the greateft part o f them as they attempted to pafs by- or
forced them off the gangways into the wafte: fame threw them-
felves voluntarily over the barricadoes into the wafte, and thought
. themfelves fortunate to lie concealed amongft the cattle: but the
greateft part efcaped up the main (hrouds, and fheltered themfelves
either in the tops or rigging. And though the Indians attacked
only the quarter-deck, yet the watch in the forecaftle findin
g their communication cut off, and being terrified by the
worlnds o f the few, who, not being killed on the (pot, had ftrength
XufEcient to force their pafiage, and not knowing either who
-their enemies were, or what were their numbers, they Jikewife
gave all over for loft, and in great confufion ran up into the rig-
•ging of ,the fore-maft and bowfprit.
Thus
Thus thefe eleven Indians, with a refolution perhaps without example,
poffefled themfelves almoft in an -in ft ant of the quarter-deck
o f a ftiip •mountingfixty-fix guns, and manned with near five hundred
hands, and continued in peaceable pofieflion of this poft a cqn-
fiderable time. For the officers in the great cabbin (amongft whom
were P-izarro -and MifidiimeUaj, the crew between decks, andthofe
who had efcaped. into the tops and rigging, were only anxious for
their own fefety, and were for a long time incapable of forming
any project for fuppreffing the infurreftion, and recovering the pof-
fefflton o f the (hip. It is true, the yells of Che Indians, the groans of
the wounded, and the confufed clamours of the crew, all beight-
ned by the obfcurity of the night, had at firft greatly magnified
their danger, and had filled them with the imaginary terrors, which
darknefs, diforder, and an ignorance of the real ftreng th of an enemy,
never fail to produce. For as the 'Spaniards were lenfihle of the
diffktisfa&ion of their preft hands, ,and were aifo confcious of their
barbarity to their prifoners, they imagined the confpiracy was general,
and confidered their own deftruftion infallible ; fo that, it
is. faid, feme of them had once taken the refolution of leaping into
t-hefea, but were prevented by their-companions. •
However, when the Indians had entirely cleared; -the.- quarter-
deck,. the tumult in a great meafure fubfided ; for thofe who had
efcaped, were keptfilentby their fears, and the Indians,were incapable
of purfuing them to renew the diforder. - Orellana, when he
faw himfelf matter of the quarter-deck, broke open the arm-cbeft,
which, on a flight fufpicion of mutiny, had been ordered there a
few days before, as to a place of the greateft fecurity. Here he
took it_for granted, he fhould find cutlaflesfufficient for himfelf and
his- companions, in. the ufe of which weapon they were all extremely
Ikilful; and with thele, it was imagined, they propofed to
have forced the great cabbin : but on opening the- cheft, there ap- ■
pea-red nothing .but fire-arms, which to them were of no ufe. There
were-indeed cutlafles in the. cheft, but they were hid by the (firearms
being laid over them. This was a fenfible difappointment to
them;.