Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/257

 crossed in canoes, the horses swimming, being led by halters; and the last river was so wide that nothing could make the horses swim it, so I had to provide a wooden bridge about half a league up from the sea where the horses and people could pass. It was nine hundred and thirty paces long and was indeed a marvellous thing to behold. This Province of Çupilco abounds in the fruit called cacao and has also many fisheries; there are ten or twelve good towns, I mean chief towns besides hamlets, and the country is flat with many marshes so that in winter it is impossible to go about except in canoes. Although I traversed it in the dry season from one end to the other, which is about twenty leagues, more than fifty bridges had to be built for the passage of men and horses. The natives are quiet and peaceable, though rather timid and shy owing to the little intercourse they had had with Spaniards, but, through my arrival, they became more confident and served very willingly, not only myself and my companions, but also the Spaniards to whom they were allotted on any departure.

From this province of Çupilco, according to the drawing the natives of Tabasco and Xicalango had given me, I was to proceed to another, called Cagoatan; but, as the natives travelled only by water, they were ignorant of any overland route, though they pointed out to me where the said province was supposed to be. I was obliged, therefore, to send some Spaniards and Indians in that direction to look for the road, and, upon discovering it, to make it possible for the rest of us to advance; for it was through very great forests. It pleased our Lord that, after some difficulty, it should be found, for, besides the forests, there were many troublesome marshes over all, or most, of which bridges had to be built, and we had to cross the great river, called Quecalapa, a tributary of the Tabasco. From there, I sent two Spaniards to the chiefs of Tabasco and Conapa, asking them to send