inhabitants were so dreadfully tormented night and day
by innumerable moschitoes that every comfort was destroyed.

On the receipt of Cortes' letter, Sandoval would gladly that instant
have set out for Naco if he had not previously despatched a great part
of his troops into the surrounding townships in search of provisions and
fodder for our horses. He was therefore compelled to await the return of
these troops, which, moreover, had been detained in passing a river,
where they had left a small detachment to guard the canoe that had
ferried them across. Besides this, Sandoval had had daily skirmishes
with the Indians of the townships lying on the Golfo Dulce, so that he
deemed it necessary to send a further reinforcement of eight men, under
my command, as a further guard to the canoe. Here we were obliged to
observe the utmost vigilance, for one night a great body of Indians fell
suddenly upon us, in the hopes, if they found us off our guard, to
capture the canoe and set fire to our huts. However silently they came
creeping along, we received timely notice of their approach, and we
eight men, with four Mexicans, boldly advanced against them, and quickly
sent them back from whence they came, though two Spaniards and one of
the Mexicans were slightly wounded by the enemy's arrows. Upon this
three of us marched further on to some huts where several invalid
Mexicans and Spaniards had remained behind. These people we conducted
safely to Sandoval, with the exception of one Spaniard, who died of
exhaustion a couple of miles from the township, where the former was
quartered with the rest of the troops. This soldier was one of those who
had but recently arrived from Spain, and we were obliged to leave his
body on the road from want of sufficient hands to carry it.

When I had given Sandoval my report of everything that had befallen us
on our march, he was excessively angry with us for not having brought
the dead body either on our shoulders or on one of the horses. I told
him very coolly that each of the horses as it was had carried two sick
persons, and that we ourselves had been obliged to walk on foot. One of
my companions, however, a certain Villa Nueva, was not quite so cool as
myself, but told Sandoval in a passion that we had trouble enough to
drag ourselves along without loading ourselves with the dead, and as for
himself he was perfectly tired of the many fatigues he had to undergo in
the service of Cortes, and that all