niards arrived with a letter from
Cortes, in which he desired me to meet him on his march with as large a
quantity of provisions as I could possibly collect together, for the
whole of the inhabitants of Ciguatepec had suddenly fled, and not a
morsel of food was to be got; he was therefore compelled to commence his
march immediately, and I was to use all my endeavours to persuade the
caziques to remain in their townships.

These two Spaniards also told me that our general had despatched four
men up the river in search of provisions among the townships, which were
said to lie in that direction. But none of these men had returned,
having most probably been murdered by the inhabitants.

Cortes, therefore, began his march, and arrived in the space of two days
on the banks of the broad river above mentioned. Here he displayed his
usual activity of mind in superintending the construction of a bridge,
which, with the utmost exertions, was completed in the space of four
days of the tallest and thickest trees growing in the neighbourhood,
which greatly excited the astonishment of the inhabitants of Acala.
During these four days our troops had scarcely anything to eat, as they
had commenced their march without any provisions whatever. And what was
worse, they were totally ignorant whether any maise was to be had
further on, or whether the country was at peace. Some of the veteran
troops stopped the gnawing pain of hunger by cutting down a species of
very tall palm-tree, which bore on the topmost branches a kind of nut,
with an uncommon hard shell, these they roasted in the fire and ate the
kernel.

A short time after this strong bridge had been completed, I and my
companions returned to where the army lay encamped, bringing with us one
hundred and thirty loads of maise, eighty fowls, some honey, some salt,
and various kinds of vegetables. Though it was pretty late when we
arrived, yet the whole of the men were keeping a sharp look out for us,
as they were perfectly aware we had gone out in search of provisions;
our general, moreover, having assured them he had good hopes they would
shortly get something to eat, if at least the Indians did not kill me,
as they had the four other Spaniards he had despatched in search of
provisions.

As I was thus approaching the camp in the dark, the whole of our troops
suddenly fell upon the provisions like ravenous wolves, and took entire
possession of them, nor did they leave the smallest qua