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.  We sent a plentiful supply of maize to the miserable colonist who had been so long in a starving condition, of which they eat to such excess that seven of them died.  About this time likewise a vessel arrived with seven horses, forty hogs, eight pipes of salted meat, a considerable quantity of biscuit, and fifteen adventurers from Cuba.  Cortes immediately purchased all the provisions, which he distributed among the colonists, who eat the salted meat so voraciously that it occasioned diarrhoeas, by which, in a very few days, fourteen of them were carried off.

As Cortes wished to examine this great river, he caused one of the brigantines belonging to Avila which had been stranded to be fitted out; and embarking with thirty soldiers and eight mariners belonging to the vessel lately arrived, having likewise a boat and four double canoes, he proceeded up the river to a spacious lake with good anchorage.  This lake was navigable for six leagues, all the adjacent country being subject to be inundated; but on endeavouring to proceed higher, the current became stronger, and he came to certain shallows, which prevented the vessels from proceeding any farther.  Cortes now landed with his soldiers, and advanced into the country by a narrow road which led to several villages of the natives.  In the first of these he procured some guides, and in the