The arrow-head had been broken off by striking a vertebra.
The battle was over. Soon the _urubus_, or vultures, were hanging
over the tree-tops waiting for their share of the spoils. The men
assembled in front of the Chief for roll-call. Four of our men were
killed outright by rifle-bullets, and it was typical of these brave men
that none were killed by machete stabs. The entire marauding expedition
of twenty Peruvians was completely wiped out, not a single one escaping
the deadly aim of the Mangeromas. Thus was avoided the danger of being
attacked in the near future by a greater force of Peruvians, called
to this place from the distant frontier by some returning survivor.
It is true that the Mangeromas lay in ambush for their enemy
and killed them, for the greater part, with poisoned arrows and
spears, but the odds were against the Indians, not only because the
_caboclos_ were attacking them in larger numbers, but because they
came with modern, repeating fire-arms against the hand weapons of the
Mangeromas. These marauders, too, came with murder and girl-robbery
in their black hearts, while the Mangeromas were defending their homes
and families. But it is true that after the battle, so bravely fought,
the Indians cut off the hands and feet of their enemies, dead or dying,
and carried them home.
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