Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/271

 the roads sent me word that they were lost, I ordered them to stop where they were and went ahead on foot till I came up with them and saw the bewilderment in which they were; I made the people turn back to a small marsh we had crossed the day before, and where there was some pasturage for the horses, since they had had nothing to eat for forty-eight hours. We remained there that night, suffering much from hunger, and hopeless of finding any populated place, so that my people were more dead than alive. I consulted my compass by which I had often guided myself, though never had we been in such a plight as this, and, remembering the direction in which the Indians said the town stood, I calculated that, by going towards the north-east from where we were we would come out at, or very near to, the town; so I ordered those who were ahead opening the road to take the compass with them and follow that direction without deviating from it. Our Lord was pleased that they should come out so exactly that, at the hour of vespers, they came upon some temples of the idols in the centre of the town, which caused such rejoicing among the people that they all ran to the town as though almost out of their senses, and, not observing a large marsh at its entrance, many of the horses sank in it so that some could not be got out until the following day, God being pleased, however, that none should perish; and we who came in the rear avoided the swamp, though with considerable difficulty.

We found Çagoatespan entirely burned; even to the mosques and houses of their idols, nor did we find any people there, nor news of the canoes which  Arrival at Singuate- peçpan were ascending the river. There was plenty of maize, riper than that of other places, also yuca and agoes, and good pasture for the horses on the banks of the river, which are very fertile and covered with fine grass. Thus refreshed, our past troubles