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n the neighbourhood
gathered themselves together as they had the time before, when they
killed fifty-six of our men and wounded all the rest of us. From their
bearing and proud demeanour we could easily perceive that they had not
forgotten their victory. They were all well armed according to their
fashion, with bows, lances, shields, and broadswords, which they wield
with both hands. Added to all this they had slings, cotton cuirasses,
drums and trumpets, while most of them had their faces painted black and
white. They had arranged themselves along the sea shore in order to fall
upon us as soon as we landed. But, as our previous loss had taught us
prudence, we took with us this time some falconets, and otherwise well
armed ourselves with crossbows and matchlocks.

When we were near enough they let fly such a shower of arrows and lances
that the half of our men were speedily wounded. As soon, however, as we
got on shore, we quickly gave them an evil return with our matchlocks
and sabres. Nothing daunted by this they each selected their man, whom
they particularly aimed at with their arrows, but we had taken the
precaution to put on cotton cuirasses. They continued to combat with us
for some time, until the arrival of another of our long boats, when we
drove them back to the wells near the village. In this conflict we lost
Juan de Quitera and many other soldiers. Our commander, Juan de
Grijalva, got three arrow wounds and lost two of his teeth, and above
sixty of our men were wounded. Immediately upon our putting the enemy to
flight, we entered the village, dressed our wounds, and buried the dead.
Not a single person had remained behind in the village, and even those
whom we had driven back to the wells had merely staid there a sufficient
time to carry off their property. In this skirmish we made three
prisoners, one of whom was a person of rank. Our commander set them at
liberty, desiring them to go and call the cazique of the district. He
also presented them with green glass beads and small bells to distribute
among the inhabitants, in order to gain their friendship. We treated the
three prisoners upon the whole with every kindness, and gave them glass
corals to encourage them and gain their good faith. They left us indeed,
but took good care not to return; we thought it possible, however, that
Julianillo and Melchorejo had misrepresented our commission to them. We
staid four days in this place, and I shall never forget it on account of
the immense sized locusts which we saw here. It was a stony spot on
which the battle took place, and these creatures, while it lasted, kept
continually flying in our faces; and as at the same moment we were
greeted by a shower of arrows from the enemy, we also mistook these
locusts for arrows. But, as soon as we had discovered our mistake, we
deceived ourselves in another more direful way, for we now mistook
arrows for locusts, and discontinued to shield ourselves against them.
In this way we mistook locusts and arrows to our great sorrow, were
severely wounded in consequence, and otherwise found ourselves in a very
awkward predicament.

CHAPTER X.

 _We continued our course and ran into Terminos bay, as we named it._

On our further voyage we came to an opening on the coast, which to us
appeared to be the mouth of some broad and large river. It was, however,
not a river as we had supposed, but a good harbour, which reached so far
inland, and had such a considerable breadth, that it appeared like a
sea; and our pilot Anton de Alaminos confidently asserted that this was
an island whose two promontories reached nigh to the continent. We,
therefore, termed this opening the Boca de Terminos, under which name it
may be found on the sea charts. Our commander and the other officers
went on shore here with the greater part of our men, among which number
I also was. We remained three whole days in this place in order
thoroughly to explore the opening and sail through it in all directions.
We discovered, however, that it was no island, but a deep indented bay,
formed by the continent, affording us a most commodious harbour. As we
also found temples here built of stone and lime, full of idols made of
wood or clay, with other figures, sometimes representing women,
sometimes serpents, also horns of various kinds of wild animals, we
concluded that an Indian village must be near at hand: we considered,
moreover, that this would be a most excellent spot to found a colony. We
had, however, deceived ourselves in one thing, the district being quite
uninhabited. The temples most probably belonged to merchants and
hunters, who on their journies most likely ran into this harbour and
there made their sacrifices. Fallow deer and rabbits abounded in this
neighbourhood, and with one greyhound only we killed ten of the former
and great numbers of the latter. Our dog took such a liking to this spot
that it ran away while we were busy reimbarking, nor did we see it again
until we visited this place subsequently with Cortes, when it appeared
in excellent condition, quite plump and sleeky.

Having thoroughly explored Terminos harbour, and sounded it throughout,
we pursued our course along the coast to the river Tabasco, which at
present, after the name of its discoverer, is called the river Grijalva.

CHAPTER XI.

 _How we came into the Tabasco river, which we termed the Grijalva,
 and what happened to us there._

As we thus by day sailed along the coast of the continent, for at night
we lay to on account of the shallows and rocks, we perceived on the
third morning a very broad mouth of some river. We approached the shore
as near as possible, thinking we should find a good harbour here. As we
came closer to the mouth we saw that the waves broke over its shallows:
we consequently lowered our boats to make soundings, and found that our
two larger vessels could not come in here. It was therefore immediately
resolved that they should anchor further out at sea, but that the two
remaining vessels which did not draw so much water, with all our boats
well manned, should proceed up the river. We could perceive in the
canoes along the shore numbers of Indians with bows and arrows, and in
other respects armed exactly like those of Champoton. We concluded from
their numbers that a village could not be far off; we also found as we
proceeded further up the river along the banks, basket kiddles put out,
from two of which we took the fish and placed them in a boat a-stern of
our principal ship.

This river was previously called after the cazique of the district, the
Tabasco; as we, however, discovered it during this expedition, we gave
it the name of the Grijalva river, in honour of our chief commander,
under which name it stands on the sea charts.

We might still have been about two miles from the village when we
distinctly heard the crackling noise of the felling of trees; for the
Indians were constructing barricades and making other preparations of
war against us, of the issue o

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