Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/298

 who was on horseback by my side spurred his horse through the waters and swam after them, which so frightened them that they abandoned their canoes, upon which some foot soldiers swam quickly after them and captured them. All the people we had seen in the town had completely deserted it. I asked those Indians where we could cross, and they showed me a road where, by a roundabout march of about a league, we would find a passage; so that we went that night to sleep in that town. It is eight leagues from our starting place, and is called Checan, and the name of its chief is Amohan.

I remained four days collecting supplies enough for six days more, for which time the guide told me we would march through a desert, and also waiting to see if the chief of the town, whom I had sent to call, would come, for I had assured him through those Indians I had captured; but neither he nor they appeared. Having collected all the provisions obtainable there, I left, and marched, the first day, through a very level and beautiful country, with no forests, save now and then. And, having travelled six leagues, we reached the foot of a great mountain range where we found a large house and two or three smaller ones situated near a river, all surrounded by maize plantations; the guides told me that the house belonged to Amohan, the chief of Checan, who kept it as an inn for the many traders passing that way. I stopped there one day besides that of my arrival, as it was a festival, and also because I wished to give the scouts who went ahead time to clear the road. We had very excellent fishing in the river near Checan, where we found a large number of shad which we took without difficulty, not one of those which entered the nets escaping.

The following day, we marched seven leagues through a rough and mountainous country, and spent the night on the banks of a large river. On the next day,