o partake, which I did, seated
on a mat and eating of the dishes that were placed upon the ground by
the women. Among these I noticed one girl who far surpassed all the
others in grace, though none were unpleasing to the eye. She was dark,
indeed, but her features were regular and her eyes fine. Her figure was
tall and straight, and the sweetness of her face added to the charm of
her beauty. I mention this girl here for two reasons, first because she
saved me once from sacrifice and once from torture, and secondly because
she was none other than that woman who afterwards became known as
Marina, the mistress of Cortes, without whose aid he had never conquered
Mexico. But at this time she did not guess that it was her destiny to
bring her country of Anahuac beneath the cruel yoke of the Spaniard.

From the moment of my entry I saw that Marina, as I will call her,
for her Indian name is too long to be written, took pity on my forlorn
state, and did what lay in her power to protect me from vulgar curiosity
and to minister to my wants. It was she who brought me water to wash in,
and a clean robe of linen to replace my foul and tattered garments, and
a cloak fashioned of bright feathers for my shoulders.

When supper was done a mat was given me to sleep on in a little room
apart, and here I lay down, thinking that though I might be lost for
ever to my own world, at least I had fallen among a people who were
gentle and kindly, and moreover, as I saw from many tokens, no savages.
One thing, however, disturbed me; I discovered that though I was well
treated, also I was a prisoner, for a man armed with a copper spear
slept across the doorway of my little room. Before I lay down I looked
through the wooden bars which served as a protection to the window
place, and saw that the house stood upon the border of a large open
space, in the midst of which a great pyramid towered a hundred feet or
more into the air. On the top of this pyramid was a building of stone
that I took to be a temple, and rightly, in front of which a fire
burned. Marvelling what the purpose of this great work might be, and in
honour of what faith it was erected, I went to sleep.

On the morrow I was to learn.

Here it may be convenient for me to state, what I did not discover till
afterwards, that I was in the city of Tobasco, the capital of one of the
southern provinces of Anahuac, which is situated at a distance of some
hundreds of miles from the central cit