he province of
Colima or Zacatula. This armament, indeed, reached the Moluccas, and
visited several other islands, but suffered dreadfully from heavy
tempests, hunger, and disease, and many of the men died. One of the
sailors who accompanied this expedition I saw three years after at
Mexico, and he told me marvellous things of the towns and islands which
Saavedra had visited. If my memory is correct, (for many years have
since elapsed,) Saavedra, with all his men, were taken prisoners by the
Portuguese there, and transported to Spain, or brought back thither at
his majesty's request.

After this first armament had departed, Cortes fitted out two more
vessels with eighty musketeers and crossbow-men. The command of these
vessels he gave to a certain Diego Hurtado Mendoza, who set sail from
Acapulco in the month of May, 1532, for the discovery of islands and new
countries. The captain Hurtado, however, did nothing of all this, and
durst not even venture far out at sea, so that the greater part of his
men at length grew wearied of sailing about to no purpose, refused all
further obedience to him, and deserted with one of the vessels; though
these men afterwards positively declared that the two vessels parted
with the captain's consent, who granted them permission to return with
one of the vessels to Spain: but this account cannot be credited, and
the men no doubt took forcible possession of the vessel. However, they
had not been separated long before the vessel was cast on shore by a
severe storm, and, after undergoing many fatigues, the crew arrived at
Xalisco, whence the news of their misfortune speedily reached Mexico.
Hurtado, in the meantime, continued to sail along the coast, but all at
once his vessel disappeared, nor was she or any of those on board ever
after heard of.

Cortes was excessively grieved at this loss, yet it did not deter him
from fitting out other armaments for the same purpose. He had already
built two more vessels at his own expense, which were lying in the
harbour of Guantepec, and were manned with seventy soldiers. The command
of one of these vessels he gave to a cavalier named Diego Bezerra de
Mendoza, and captain Hernando de Grijalva he appointed to the other,
though Bezerra had the chief command of both. Ortuna Ximenes, of Biscay,
a great cosmographer, accompanied this expedition, as chief pilot.
Bezerra's instructions were to go in quest of Hurtado; but if he should
not fall in with him, he