One Of These Was A
Notary, Named Guillen De La Loa, And The Rest Attended Him To Witness The
Act.
From these men Cortes was informed that Francisco de Garay, governor
of Jamaica, had procured a commission from the
Court as adelantado of such
districts as he might discover on this coast to the north of the river of
St Peter and St Paul, and had sent three ships with 270 soldiers under
Pineda, who was then in the river of Panuco. Cortes wished to have got
possession of the ship, but no signals could induce the people to land, as
we were informed by de la Loa that their captain was aware of our being on
the coast. As a stratagem to decoy them on shore, Cortes dressed four of
his soldiers in the clothes of the Spaniards he had taken, and left them
on the spot, returning along-shore towards Villa Rica, that he might be
noticed from the ship; but after we had got out of sight, we made a secret
detour through the woods, and got back about midnight to the rivulet where
we had left our disguised companions, where we carefully concealed
ourselves. Early in the morning, our disguised men went down to the shore,
making signals to the people of the ship, in consequence of which a boat
put off with six sailors, two of whom landed with casks to take in water.
Our men held down their faces to avoid being noticed, pretending to wash
their hands; but on being spoken to by the men in the boat, one of them
desired them to come on shore; when alarmed by the strange voice, they put
off. We were going to fire upon them, but Cortes would not permit, and
they escaped. We thus missed our object, and returned to Villa Rica,
having procured six men as a reinforcement to our small force.
[1] Chempoalla appears to have been a place of considerable size, both
from the testimony of eye-witnesses and the extent of its ruins.
Torquimada in one place says its inhabitants amounted to twenty or
thirty thousand; in another place he extends their number to 50,111,
and in his index to 150,000. Like many others of the Indian cities in
New Spain, it dwindled down, by the diseases and vexations of the
sixteenth century, and at length became entirely
depopulated. - Clavigero, II. 21.
[2] Bernal Diaz has given no dates of the transactions of Cortes in Mexico,
from the 21st of April till now, the 26th of July, a period of 3
months and 5 days. - E.
END OF VOLUME THIRD
End of A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. III., by Robert Kerr
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