Diaz now proceeded up the river again, looking for a place where he could safely cross to explore the country on the opposite side.  After ascending from the spot where he found the letters for five or six days, he concluded they could cross by means of rafts.  In the construction of these rafts he invited the help of the natives of the neighbourhood.  He was probably up near the Chocolate Mountains and the Cumanas, who were hostile to Alarcon, and whose sorcerer had attempted to destroy him by means of the magic reeds.  They had been merely waiting for an opportunity to attack Diaz, and they perceived their chance in this assistance in crossing the river.  They readily agreed to help make the rafts, and even to assist in the crossing.  But while the work was in progress a soldier who had gone out from the camp was surprised to observe a large number of them stealing off to a mountain on the other side.  When he reported this, Diaz caused one of the natives to be secured, without the others being aware of it.  He was tortured till he confessed that the plan was to begin the attack when some of the Spaniards were across the river, some in the water, and the others on the near bank.  Thus separated they believed they could easily be destroyed.  The native, as a reward for this valuable confession, was secretly killed, and that night, with a heavy weight tied to him, was cast into the deep water.  But the others evidently suspected the trick, for the next day they showered arrows upon the camp.  The Spaniards pursued them and by means of their superior arms soon drove them into the mountains.  Diaz was then able to cross without molestation, his faithful Amerind allies of another tribe assisting.

Alarcon had conveyed in his letters the nature of the gulf and coast, so Diaz struck westward to see what he could find in that direction.  The country was desolate and forbidding, in places the sand being like hot ashes and the earth trembling.  Four days of this satisfied them, and the captain concluded to return to San Hieronimo.  The subsequent fate of Diaz is another illustration of how a man may go the world round, escaping many great dangers, and then be annihilated by a simple accident that would seem impossible.  A dog belonging to the camp pursued the little flock of sheep that had been driven along to supply the men with meat, and Diaz on his horse dashed toward it, at the same time hurling a spear.  The spear stuck up in the ground instead of striking the dog, and the butt penetrated the captain’s abdomen, inflicting, under the conditions, a mortal wound.  The men could do nothing for him except to carry him along, which for twenty days they did, fighting hostile natives all the time.  Then he died.  On the 18th of January they arrived without their leader at the settlement from which they had started some three months before.