Excerpt
Taking care to describe himself as a humble servant, Losada
apologized for not writing sooner by saying he had to first ensure
the natives were pacified. He described the righteousness of his
mission, and how, at Villa Rica, we had begged St. Sebastian to
become our patron saint against the deadly venom of the arrows.
According to Losada, he had ordered his men to confess before
proceeding further, at the threshold of the lands of the Arbaco
Indians. I was impressed by the skill of this man’s practiced
diplomacy. I remember thinking, “So this is how it is done, not with
swords, but with words.”
Losada described how the cacique named Terepaima followed
orders of the most treacherous of all caciques, the one called
Guacaipuro, and how, together they had killed every man, woman
and child, white and Indian, in two former expeditions, and how a
third survived by retreating.
Knowing his Excellency had newly arrived from Spain, Losada to
care to recall the annihilation of the two towns that were established
by Francisco Fajardo—San Francisco and El Collado)—and the
death of Juan Rodriguez Suárez, the founder of the city of Mérida de
los Caballeros, who, believing in promises of peace made by
Guacaipuro, had brought his three little children as he came to aid
Fajardo, all slaughtered by the savages.
Losada reported how he had made Francisco Maldonado a
caudillo and ordered him to advance to Valencia and wait there
while he—with Pedro Alonso Galeas and Francisco Infante—had
gone to Borburata to welcome Juan de Salas and one hundred
Guaqueríes Indians from the island of Margarita. After waiting
fifteen days at Borburata with no news of the arrival, Losada
discovered Maldonado had wisely camped at the valley of Mariara
near the City of Valencia.
Losada also reported he was waiting for the return of a
reconnaissance party sent under the command of Pedro García
Camacho, an honourable cavalry man who knew the area because
he was one of the three survivors of the unfortunate expedition of
Narváez.
Libros Libertad 