Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/291

 of five or six others in this province, each of whom was independent, and everyone of whom offered himself as vassal of Your Majesty and our friend, though I never could induce those lords to come and see me. As I had no time to waste, I sent them word that I received them in Your Highness 's name and asked them to furnish me guides for my journey; this they did very willingly, giving me one who not only knew the country as far as the town where the Spaniards were whom I came to search for, but had also seen them. Thereupon I left the town of Tiac, sleeping that night at another, called Yasuncabil, which is the last in the province; this was surrounded by palisades, as the other two, but deserted. We found there a most beautiful house of the chief built entirely of straw. We provided ourselves there with everything required for the march, for the guide told us we had five days' journey in the desert before reaching the Province of Taiza which we had to traverse; and it turned out that this was true.

In this Province of Mazatlan, or Quiatcho as it is called, I dismissed the two traders whom I had stopped on the road, as well as the guides from Acalan, giving them some presents, both for themselves, and for their chief, so they went off very contented. I also dismissed to his home the chief of the first town who had come with me, giving him some of his women who had been captured in the forest; I also gave him some other small presents at which he was much pleased.

Having left the Province of Mazatlan, I continued my march towards that of Taiza sleeping four nights on the road in that deserted country. My way led  Cortes Ar- rives at Peten Itza over high and rocky mountains, and I had to cross a dangerous pass of which all the rocks were of very fine alabaster, hence I named it Puerto del Alabastro. On the fifth day, the scouts who went ahead with the guides discovered a great lake which seemed to