river, on account of the enormous alligators with which
the water abounded.

From this place Cortes marched over the townships of Uluta up to the
broad river of Guacasualco, where every preparation had been made to
convey the army across, for which purpose a great number of canoes lay
ready fastened two and two together. In the town of Guacasualco itself
triumphal arches had been erected, and every preparation had been made
to entertain our general as magnificently as possible. Sham fights took
place between Christians and Moors, all kinds of fireworks were
displayed at night, and various other rejoicings were kept up.

Cortes staid altogether six days in Guacasualco, during which time the
veedor and factor left him not a moment's peace, with their
representations to relinquish the expedition, and return to Mexico. They
constantly reminded him of the men to whom he had confided the chief
government, and told him that the accountant Albornoz was a man fond of
innovation, restless of disposition, and double-faced; that the
treasurer openly prided himself on being a son of his catholic majesty;
so that very little trust could be placed in either of these gentlemen.
From the moment he had intrusted the government to them, and even
previously, they had laid their heads together, and determined upon some
secret movement. They likewise reminded Cortes of the letters he had
received on his march hither, from Mexico, in which it was stated that
his two representatives had already began to slander his government of
the country. In short, the veedor and factor spoke in such eloquent and
flattering terms of their great attachment to his person, and how much
more fitting persons they were themselves to have been intrusted with
the government in his absence than the two other gentlemen, that at last
they actually persuaded him to grant them equal power in the
administration; and not only this, but with the additional authority to
take the sole government into their own hands, if they saw that Albornoz
and Estrada acted against the true interests of his majesty.

The power which Cortes thus conferred upon the veedor and factor was the
source of many evils, and of the terrible insurrection which shortly
after burst out in Mexico, and of which I will give a full account in a
following chapter, when our army has fairly reached the town of
Truxillo, after a long and tedious march. I will only take this
opportunity of observing, that fat