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. Sandoval
arrived soon afterwards, and Cortes issued immediate orders to march to
the coast, which was about six leagues distant. Cortes pushed forwards
with his attendants, and crossed the river by means of the two canoes,
swimming the horses. The Spanish settlement was about two leagues from the
place where Cortes landed, and the colonists were astonished on seeing the
Europeans coming towards them, and still more so when they found it was
the renowned conqueror of Mexico. Cortes received their congratulations
very graciously, and desired them to bring all the canoes they could
collect, and the boats belonging to their ships to assist his army in
crossing. He likewise ordered them to provide bread for the army; but of
this only fifty pounds weight could be got, as they lived almost entirely
on _sapotes_ and other vegetables, and fish.
We had an arm of the sea to cross, and had therefore to wait for low water,
but Cortes had found the passage so dangerous that he sent us word not to
follow till farther orders. The care of passing this dangerous place was
entrusted to Sandoval, who took as effectual measures as possible, but it
took us four days to get over, partly wading and partly swimming. One
soldier and his horse went to the bottom, and was never seen more, and two
other horses were lost. A person named Saavedra, presuming on his
relationship to Cortes, refused obedience to the orders of Sandoval, and
endeavoured to force his passage, even laying his hand on his poinard, and
using disrespectful expressions to Sandoval; who seized him instantly and
threw him into the water, where he was nearly drowned. Our sufferings at
this time were excessive, as during all these four days we had literally
nothing to eat, except by gathering a few nuts and some wild fruits, and
on getting across our condition was not improved. We found this colony to
contain forty men and six women, all yellow and sickly, and utterly
destitute of provisions; so that we were under the necessity of setting
out immediately in search of food both for ourselves and them. For this
purpose, about eighty of us marched, under the command of Luis Marin, to a
town about eight leagues distant, where we found abundance of maize and
vegetables, and great quantities of cacao; and as this place was in the
direct road for Naco, to which Cortes intended to go, he immediately sent
Sandoval and the greatest part of the troops to join us, on receiving the
agreeable intelligence of our good fortune.
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