On receiving this last letter from the general, Sandoval pressed on for Naco, but was obliged to halt at a place called Cuyocan, in order to collect the stragglers who had gone in quest of provisions.  We were also impeded by a river, and the natives on every side were hostile.  Our line of march was now extremely long, by the great number of invalids, especially of the Mexicans, who were unable to keep up with the main body; on which account Sandoval left me at this place, with the command of eight men at the ferry, to protect and bring up the stragglers.  One night the natives attacked my post, setting fire to the house in which we were lodged, and endeavoured to carry away our canoe; but, with the assistance of some of our Mexicans who had come up, we beat them off; and, having collected all the invalids who had loitered behind, we crossed the river next day, and set but to rejoin Sandoval.  A Genoese, who had been sometime ill, sunk at length through weakness, occasioned by poverty of diet, and died on the road, and I was obliged to leave his body behind.  When I made my report to Sandoval, he was ill pleased at me for not having brought on the dead body; but I told him we had already two invalids on every horse, and one of my companions said rather haughtily, that we had enough of difficulty to bring on ourselves, without carrying dead men.  Sandoval immediately ordered me and that soldier, whose name was Villanueva, to go back and bury the Genoese, which we did accordingly, and placed a cross over his grave.  We found a purse in his pocket, containing some dice, and a memorandum of his family and effects in Teneriffe.  God rest his soul! Amen.  In about two days we arrived at Naco, passing a town named Quinistlan, and a place where mines have been since discovered.  We found Naco to be a very good town, but it was abandoned by its inhabitants, yet we procured plenty of provisions and salt, of which we were in very great need.  We took up our quarters in some large quadrangular buildings, where De Oli was executed, and established ourselves there as if we had been to have remained permanently.  There is the finest water at this place that is to be found in all New Spain; as likewise a species of tree which is most admirable for the siesta; as, however great may be the heat of the sun, there is always a most delightful and refreshing coolness under its shade, and it seems to give out a delicate kind of dew, which is good for the head.  Naco is admirably situated, in a fertile neighbourhood, which produces different kinds of sapotes in great abundance, and it was then very populous.  Sandoval obtained possession of three chiefs of the district, whom he treated kindly, by which means the people of the district remained in peace, but all his endeavours to induce the inhabitants to return to the town were ineffectual.  It was now necessary to send the reinforcement of ten Coatzacualco veterans which Cortes had required.  At that time I was