"Fix an arrow and shoot him down!" That was Diego de Porras.
The Adelantado turned sharply.

"Do no such thing! There may be spells, but the worst spell here would be a battle!" We let fly no arrow, but the belief persisted that here was seen veritably at work the necromancy that all along they had guessed.
A party crossed to the main with the Adelantado and pushed a league into as tall and thick and shadowy a forest as ever we met in all our wanderings.

Here we found no village, but came suddenly, right in the wood, upon a very great thatched hut, and in it, upon a stone, lay in state a dead cacique.

He seemed long dead, but the body had not corrupted; it was saved by some knowledge such as had the Egyptians.
A crown of feathers rested upon the head and gold was about the neck.
Around the place stood posts and slabs of a dark wood and these were cut and painted with I do not know what of beast and bird and monstrous idol forms.

We stared.