Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/301

 thought of, for the river spread out for upwards of two thirds of a league, owing to certain large rocks, between the crevices of which the water flows with most frightful force. There are many places where the rocks lie so close together that we managed to cross by cutting down large trees and laying them from one rock to another and holding fast by creepers which were tied from one side to the other, for had anyone lost his footing and fallen he would have been certainly lost. There were more than twenty of these channels to cross, so that it took us two days, and the horses crossed lower down where the current w T as less swift; but though the distance to Tenciz was only one league, as I said before, many of them were three days in arriving there; such was their broken-down condition after their march across the mountains that my men were almost obliged to carry them, for they could scarcely walk.

I reached Tenciz on the day before Easter though many of my people did not arrive until three days afterwards; I mean those who had horses and had Easter Day been delayed in looking after them. The 1525 Spaniards whom I had sent ahead had arrived two days before me, and, taking possession of two or three of the above mentioned hamlets, had captured some twenty odd Indians, who, being unaware of my presence in those parts, had been surprised. I asked them if they had any provisions, and they said no; nor could any be found in all the country, which considerably augmented our misfortunes, as, during the past ten days, we had eaten nothing except cores of palm trees and palmettos, and even of these we had not enough, so that we were so weak we had scarcely the strength to cut them down. One of the chiefs, however, told me that, by ascending the river a day's journey (which river had again to be crossed at the same dangerous