Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/299

 after about three leagues of very bad road, we reached a beautiful plain without woods, except a few pines; we killed seven deer in these plains, which extended for about two leagues, and we dined on the banks of a very fresh stream that flows through them. After dinner, we began to ascend a mountain pass, which, though small, was rough enough so that we had to lead our horses with some difficulty; and, after the descent, we again found half a league of plain, beyond which there was another mountain pass which was about two and a half leagues long, and so rough that there was not a horse left but that had lost his shoes. I slept at the foot of the pass near a stream, where I remained the next day until about the hour of vespers, waiting for the horses to be shod; and, although I had two smiths, and more than ten who helped drive the nails, they could not all be shod that day. So I went to sleep, three leagues farther on, while many Spaniards remained there, some to shoe their horses, and others to wait for the baggage, which, on account of the bad road and the heavy rains, had not come up.

I left there the next day because the guide told me that there was a hamlet, called Asuncapin, close by belonging to the lord of Taiza, where I would arrive in plenty of time to sleep; after marching four or five leagues we reached the said hamlet, and found it deserted; and there I lodged two days, waiting for the baggage and gathering provisions. This being accomplished, I went to a hamlet, called Taxuytel, where I slept, and which is five leagues from Tiaza, and belongs to Amohan the Lord of Checan; there were many cacao plantations and some of maize, although in smaller quantities and still green. Here the guides and the chief of these hamlets, whom we captured with his wife and his son, told me that we would have to cross a chain of high and rocky mountains all uninhabited, and that, after this, we would arrive at some other