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 be present on business, of much greater value
than it really was; nor were his majesty's officials, who had to take
the fifth part, less astonished at the riches of the countries we had
discovered. Pedro de Alvarado, who knew how to humour Diego Velasquez,
afterwards related that the governor had continually embraced him,--that
festivities and tournaments were celebrated for eight successive days.
If the fame of the riches of these countries had been rumoured abroad
before, it was now, on account of the gold we had sent, the more so; it
soon spread through all the islands, and the whole of Spain.

I shall have occasion to speak of this hereafter, and will also leave
Diego Velasquez to his festivities, and return to our vessels at San
Juan de Ulua.

CHAPTER XVI.

 _What befell us on our coasting voyage along the Tusta and Tuspa
 mountains._

After Pedro de Alvarado had set sail for Cuba, our general and other
officers held a consultation with the pilots, when it was determined
that we should continue our course along the coast, and push our
discoveries as far as possible. As we sailed along, we first came in
view of the Tusta, and, two days after, of the more elevated mountains
of Tuspa, both of which take their names from two towns lying close to
the foot of these mountains. On the whole, we saw numbers of towns lying
from six to nine miles inland, now the province of Panuco. At last we
arrived at a large stream, to which we gave the name of Canoe river, and
dropped anchor at its mouth.

While our vessels were lying at anchor here, and our men had become less
careful than usual, sixteen large canoes full of Indians, all equipped
for battle, with bows, arrows, and lances, came down the stream and made
straight for our smallest vessel, commanded by Alonso de Avila, which
lay nearest the shore. They greeted our men with a shower of arrows,
wounding two of the soldiers, and then lay hold of the vessel as if they
meant to carry her off, after they had cut one of the cables. We now
hastened to the assistance of Alonso, who was still bravely repelling
his assailants, and had capsized three of their canoes. We were well
armed with crossbows and muskets, and very soon wounded at least above a
third of our enemies, who speedily retreated to where they had come
from, not exactly in the best of spirits. Upon this we weighed anchor
and continued our course along the coast until we arrived at a wide
projecting cape, which, on account of the strong currents, we found so
difficult to double that we considered our further course now impeded.
The chief pilot, Alaminos, here told our commander that it was no longer
advisable to sail on at a venture, for which he gave us many plausible
reasons. This matter being duly considered in council, it was
unanimously agreed that we should return to Cuba.

To this step we were, moreover, induced by the approach of winter,
scarcity of provisions, and the bad condition of one of our vessels
which had become very leaky. To this may also be added the disagreement
between our commanders; for Juan de Grijalva persisted in his opinion
that they should make an attempt to leave a colony behind, while
Francisco de Montejo and Alonso de Avila, on the contrary, maintained
that any such attempt would be fruitless, considering the multitude of
warriors which inhabited these countries: to all this may be added that
our men were heartily sick of the sea. We therefore turned our vessels
about, hoisted all the sails, and arrived in a few days, being greatly
assisted by the currents, in the wide waters of the Guacasualco river.
We could not make any stay here on account of the boisterous state of
the weather, and therefore continued our course along the coast until we
arrived at the mouth of the river Tonala, to which we gave the name of
St. Antonio. We ran up this river and careened the leaky vessel, which
had struck there several times against the rocks.

While we were busily engaged at this work, numbers of Indians came up to
us from the harbour of Tonala, which lay about four miles from this
place, bringing with them maise-bread, fish, and fruits, which they
readily gave us. Our commander was particularly kind to them, and
presented each with white and green glass beads, giving them at the same
time to understand by signs that they should bring us gold in exchange
for our goods. They soon complied with our wishes, but their gold was of
a very inferior quality, for which they received imitation corals. As
soon as the inhabitants of Guacasualco and the neighbouring districts
had learnt that we offered our goods for barter, they brought us all
their golden ornaments, and took in exchange green glass beads, on which
they set a high value. Besides ornaments of gold, every Indian had with
him a copper axe, which was very highly polished, with the handle
curiously carved, as if to serve equally for an ornament as for the
field of battle. At first we thought that these axes were made of an
inferior kind of gold; we therefore commenced taking them in exchange,
and, in the space of two days, had collected more than 600, with which
we were no less rejoiced as long as we were ignorant of their real
value, than the Indians with our glass beads. One of our sailors, who
had by stealth bought seven of these axes and was secretly
congratulating himself on this piece of good fortune, was betrayed to
our commander-in-chief, who, ordering the man in his presence, commanded
him to deliver up his treasure. Still of opinion that these axes were of
gold, the poor fellow, though forced, reluctantly parted with them. This
brings to my mind what befell one of our men, named Bartolome Prado:
this fellow had managed to get inside of a temple, called by the Indians
a cue,[7] which stood upon an elevated spot, and had found in it
numerous idols, and some copal, which is the incense of the Indians;
also knives made of hard flint, with which they cut their meat
offerings, and otherwise make use of in their sacrifices. Besides these
things, he found two small wooden boxes, filled with golden trinkets
which are worn about the head and neck; also small idols, and other
ornaments somewhat resembling our pearls. The idols he brought to his
commander, but took care to keep the gold himself. It seems, however,
that some one had been watching him all the time, who reported what he
had seen to our captain. We all felt concerned at this, and spoke a good
word for him, as he was a kind-hearted being: we begged hard of our
commander that he might be allowed to retain his treasure, minus the
fifth part claimed for the emperor, which being granted, the man had
nigh upon eighty pesos left for himself. In this place I must also
acquaint my readers how I sowed some orange seeds close to one of these
temples. On account of the numbers of muschetoes which swarm along this
river, I had, being tired, laid myself down to rest on the summit of a
high temple: in gratitude for the quiet slumber I enjoyed there, I
sowe

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