60 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



both on account of their situation and of the great amount of tobacco 

 grown and gathered there, and other native products, and since they 

 are without garrison or protection, they can be captured and occu- 

 pied. In fact, in the year 1618, the corsair Walter Raleigh sailed up 

 the river with his naval force to the city, which took up arms for its 

 defense; its Governor Diego Palomeque died fighting, and at his 

 side Captains Juan Ruiz Monge and Arias Nieto ; but on the death 

 of the Governor and these valiant captains, the city was captured 

 and plundered by the corsair Walter Raleigh, who had come up the 

 river to take it with 10 naval vessels and 1,500 men, with the inten- 

 tion of settling there and fortifying the place because of its advan- 

 tages through the fertility of the soil and its products and other valu- 

 able exports, like timber, as had been pointed out by His Majesty 

 to the Governor, After the latter had died in the city's defense, Capt. 

 Juan de Lezama, who took his place, being the oldest surviving 

 Alcalde, undertook to defend the place as best he could ; he did 

 indeed, having only 47 Spaniards ; he assigned half of them to the 

 protection of the women, whom he removed 4 leagues from the city, 

 and he posted others in key positions as sentinels. Having been 

 joined by sixty-odd loyal Indians with their bows and arrows, he 

 impressed them with His Majesty's power; and with only the 18 

 Spanish soldiers who were left, the others having been posted where 

 they were needed, he made a stand against the enemy for 28 days, 

 making night attacks and incursions upon them most of the nights 

 and killing many of them without damage from them, being both 

 skillful and lucky. Thus with his tiny force he kept the enemy so 

 nervous and worried that 28 days after they had taken possession 

 of the city, this Captain Lezama with his men made his entry into it, 

 and fought from midnight to dawn with the enemy, killing over 200 

 of their men, and among them the son of their General Walter 

 Raleigh, who had entered the city at the head of 500 men armed with 

 pikes and harquebusses, Raleigh himself staying on shipboard. Hav- 

 ing suffered this loss, and seeing what firm resistance and what dam- 

 age he was meeting from so small a force, in despair and with threats 

 he hoisted sail and made off ; and when His Majesty was informed 

 of the Governor's death and of the defense of the city by its resi- 

 dents. His Majesty wrote them a letter conferring great honor on 

 the city and expressing his appreciation of their good service in its 

 defense. 



157. When the episode was over, since the city lay in ruins and 

 defenseless, Capt. Juan de Lezama went over to the New Kingdom 

 of Granada to beg aid from the Royal Circuit Court which has its 



