Poisoned stakes planted by defenders could be avoided by marching along the shoreline

Evidence

Small stickes in great numbers of halfe a yard long being sharpe pointed at both ends, the one end being thrust into the ground in the common high way as we should haue marched, and the other endes sticking upwards, and as it were bent against vs, and were all dressed with a most villanous and mortall poison: so as if it did but breake the skin of any part of a man, either in the leg or otherwise, there was no remedy to be had to preserue his life. But the di[re]cteion which was giuen vs by M Carleill Lieutenant Generall to march close by the sea side, was cause that verie few of our men were touched with them. — Mary Frear Keeler, Sir Francis Drake’s West Indian Voyage,…, 2981

Categorization

• XREF: Vivid asymmetric-warfare detail that pairs with the defensive tactics the English themselves used with fireships — both sides using terrain-adapted terror weapons. — connects to: Poisoned caltrops planted on the road were defeated by marching along the shore.
• FICTION: A poisoned-stake field beside the sea road is a concrete sensory scene detail for the Cartagena assault.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Mary Frear Keeler, Sir Francis Drake’s West Indian Voyage,…, 2981