We Here Made Some Prisoners, And With Their Fruit, Fowls, And Corn, We Celebrated The Feast Of The Resurrection To Our Great Contentment.

That same night we were joined by a thousand Mexicans, who had been sent after us, whom we loaded with all the corn we could procure, and twenty fowls for Cortes and Sandoval, after which there still remained some corn in the town, which we remained to guard.

We advanced next day to some other villages, where we found corn in abundance, and wrote a billet to Cortes desiring him to send all the Indians he could spare to carry it to the army. Thirty soldiers and about five hundred Indians arrived in a short time, and we amply provided for the wants of the army during the five days it remained at Taica. I may observe here, that the bridges which we constructed on this march continued good for many years; and the Spaniards, when they travelled this way, used to say, "These are the bridges of Cortes."

After resting five days at Taica, we continued our march for two days to a place called Tania, through a country everywhere intersected by marshes, rivers, and rivulets, all the towns being abandoned and the provisions carried away; and, to add to our misfortunes, our guides made their escape during the night, being entrusted, as I suppose, to some of the newly arrived Spaniards, who used to sleep on their posts. We were thus left in a difficult country, and did not know which way to go; besides which heavy rains fell without ceasing. Cortes was very much out of humour, and observed among his officers, that he wished some others besides the Coatzacualco settlers would bestir themselves in search of guides. Pedro de Ircio, a man of quality named Marmolejo, and Burgales, who was afterwards regidor of Mexico, offered their services, and taking each of them six soldiers, were out three days in search of Indians, but all returned without success, having met with nothing but rivers, marshes, and obstructions. Cortes was quite in despair, and desired Sandoval to ask me as a favour to undertake the business. Though ill, I could not refuse when applied to in this manner; wherefore, taking two friends along with me who could endure fatigue, we set out following the course of a stream, and soon found a way to some houses, by observing marks of boughs having been cut. Following these marks, we came in sight of a village surrounded by fields of corn; but we remained concealed till we thought the people were asleep, and taking the inhabitants by surprise, we secured three men, two very handsome Indian girls, and an old woman, with a few fowls and a small quantity of maize. On bringing our prize to head-quarters, Sandoval was quite overjoyed. "Now," said he to Pedro de Ircio in the presence of Cortes, "was not Castillo in the right, when he refused to take hobbling people along with him, who tell old stories of the adventures of the Conde de Urena and his son Don Pedro Giron?" All who were present laughed heartily at this sally, as Ircio used to pester us with these stories continually, and Sandoval knew that Ircio and I were not on friendly terms. Cortes paid me many compliments on this occasion, and thanked me for my good service. But what is praise more than emptiness, and what does it profit me that Cortes said he relied on me, next to God, for procuring guides? We learnt from the prisoners that it was necessary to descend the river for two days march, when we would come to a town of two hundred houses, called _Oculiztli_; which he did accordingly, passing some large buildings where the travelling Indian merchants used to stop on their journeys. At the close of the second day we came to Oculiztli, where we got plenty of provisions, and in one of the temples we found an old red cap and a sandal, which had been placed there as offerings to the idols. Some of our soldiers brought two old men and four women to Cortes, who told him that the Spanish settlement was on the seaside two days journey from this place, with no intervening towns. Cortes therefore gave orders to Sandoval to set out immediately with six soldiers for the coast, to ascertain what number of men De Oli had with him, as he meant to fall upon him by surprise, being quite ignorant of the revolution which had happened in this quarter.

Sandoval set out accordingly with three guides, and on reaching the sea shore, he soon perceived a canoe; and concealing himself where he expected it might anchor for the night, was fortunate enough to get possession of the canoe; which belonged to some Indian merchants who were carrying salt to _Golfo dolce_. Sandoval embarked in this canoe with a part of his men, sending the rest along the shore, and made for the great river. During the voyage, he fell in with four Spaniards belonging to the settlement, who were searching for fruit near the mouth of the river, being in great distress from sickness and the hostilities of the Indians. Two of these men were up in a tree, when they saw Sandoval to their great astonishment, and soon joined him. They informed him of the great distress of the settlement, and of all the events which had occurred, and how they had hanged the officer whom Avila had left in the command, and a turbulent priest, for opposing their determination to return to Cuba, and had elected one Antonio Niote in his stead. Sandoval resolved to carry these people to Cortes, whom he wished to inform as soon as possible of the news, and sent a soldier named Alonzo Ortiz, who soon reached us with the agreeable intelligence, for which Cortes gave him an excellent horse, and all of us gave him something in proportion to our abilities.

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