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.
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