energies of despair, the detachment
succeeded in obtaining food. This strengthened them until they
reached a large town called Taica, where they again rejoiced in
abundance. The rain still continued to fall in torrents, and the
soldiers, drenched by night and by day, toiled along through the mire.
Even Cortez lost his habitual placidity of temper and began to
complain. The vain and gossiping Diaz would not have his readers
unmindful of the eminent services he rendered in these emergencies.
With much affected humility he narrates his exploits.

"Cortez," says he, "returned me thanks for my conduct. But I
will drop this subject; for what is praise but emptiness and
unprofitableness, and what advantage is it to me that people
in Mexico should tell me what we endured, or that Cortez
should say, when he wanted me to go on this last expedition,
that, next to God, it was me on whom he placed his
reliance?"

They now arrived upon the banks of a river which led to the sea-coast.
At the mouth of this river Olid had established one of his important
settlements. A march of four days was required to reach the coast.
Cortez, who was entirely ignorant of the death of Olid, and of the
overthrow of his power, sent forward scouts to ascertain the state
of things, as it was his intention to fall upon Olid by surprise at
night. The army moved slowly down the stream, feeding miserably upon
nuts and roots. The scouts returned with the intelligence that there
were no enemies to be met; that the insurrection was entirely quelled,
and the colony, consisting of several scattered settlements, was in
perfect subjection to the authority of Cortez. It is difficult to
imagine the feelings with which this intelligence was received. Cortez
must have felt, at least for a few moments, exceedingly foolish. The
Herculean enterprise of a march of eighteen hundred miles through a
pathless wilderness, peopled with savage foes, where many hundreds of
his army had perished from fatigue and famine, and all had endured
inconceivable hardships, had been utterly fruitless. It had been what
is sometimes called a wild-goose chase, upon a scale of grandeur
rarely paralleled.

They soon arrived at a half-starved colony at the mouth of the river,
consisting of forty men and six women. The energies of Cortez were,
however, unabated. Foraging parties were sent out to plunder the
natives, which was done pitilessly, without any appare