rnor strongly advised the Indians
to comply with our request; the consequence of which was that the
inhabitants of the surrounding districts soon brought us every trinket
they possessed in the shape of gold, and commenced a trade of barter
with us. During the six days we stayed in this spot we obtained upwards
of 1500 pesos' worth of gold trinkets, of various workmanship, but of
inferior quality. The historians Francisco Lopez de Gomara and Gonzalo
Hernandez de Oviedo have also mentioned this circumstance in their
works. They err, however, when they say it took place in the Tabasco or
Grijalva river; for it is a well-authenticated fact that there is no
gold found in the provinces which border on the river Grijalva, and,
upon the whole, very few ornaments of gold. I will not, however, detain
my reader with their account, but rather inform him that we took
possession of this country for his imperial majesty the Emperor, in the
name of Diego Velasquez, the governor of Cuba. This being done, our
general told the Indians that he was now desirous of re-embarking, and
presented them with some Spanish shirts. We took one of the Indians with
us, who subsequently learnt our language and was converted to
Christianity, when he took the name of Francisco. I met with him
afterwards at Santa Fe, where he had settled himself after the conquest
of Mexico. Our commander, finding that the inhabitants brought no more
gold, and considering that we had already been here six days, and that
our present anchorage was rather dangerous on account of the contrary
winds, gave orders for re-embarking. Pursuing our voyage, we came to an
island which was quite covered with white sand, lying above nine miles
from the main land. We gave it the name of Isla Blanca, as it stands on
the sea charts. Not far from this lay another island, nearly five miles
from the main land, which offered us a very commodious landing-place.

Our general, therefore, ordered the boats to be lowered, and landed,
with the greater portion of our men, in order to explore the island. We
found two houses, which were strongly built of stone and lime; both were
ascended by a flight of steps, and surmounted by a species of altar, on
which stood several abominable idols, to whom, the previous evening,
five Indians had been sacrificed. Their dead bodies still lay there,
ripped open, with the arms and legs chopped off, while everything near
was besmeared with blood. We contemplated this si