Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/260

 the smallest of all, contained more than two hundred sufficiently good houses; we could not reach the other because it was separated from us by rivers which flowed between and which we could have crossed only by swimming.

The towns were all very deserted, and we found, upon our arrival, that all the Indians who had accompanied the Spaniards had also fled, notwithstanding that I had spoken to them kindly and treated them well, distributing among them some of the trifles I had with me, and thanking them for the pains they had taken in opening the said road. I had told them that my coming to these parts was by Your Majesty's commands and for no other purpose than to teach them to believe in and worship only one God, Creator and Maker of all things, and to acknowledge Your Majesty as supreme lord of the country, and many other like things, which I usually said to them. I waited three or four days, thinking they had left from fear and would come back to speak to me, but none of them ever appeared.

In order to bring them by peaceable means to Your Majesty's service, and to obtain information from them about my road, for there seemed not to be even a track of a single person ever having gone on land, all travelling on the great rivers and lakes, I determined to send two companies of Spaniards and some natives of Temixtitan, whom I had with me, to search for the people of the province and bring some of them to me. By means of the canoes which had come up the river from Tabasco, and of others we procured at the said town, my men managed to navigate most of the rivers and swamps, as marching overland seemed impracticable; but they discovered only two Indians and some women from whom I took every pains to ascertain where their chief and his people were. They told me no more, however, than that they were wandering dispersed through the forest,