Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/304

 The next day, I marched six leagues and crossed two rivers, one of which we crossed on a tree which had fallen spanning it; the horses swam across and two mares were drowned; we crossed the other river in canoes, the horses swimming. I slept in a small town of about fifteen newly built houses which I learned belonged to the merchants of Acalan who had left the town where the Christians were and had settled here. I waited there a day to collect the men and baggage, then I sent two companies of horsemen and one of foot soldiers in the direction of Acuculin; from there they wrote me that they had found the place deserted, but that in a large house, belonging to the lord of the country, they had captured two men who were waiting there, by command of their chief, to advise him of my arrival as soon as they saw me. The prisoners declared that their lord had heard of my coming from those messengers whom I had sent from Tenciz, and that he would rejoice to see me and come as soon as he learnt that I had arrived. My men sent one to summon the lord and to bring some provisions, while the other they held as hostage. They said they had found cacao but no maize, and that the pasture for the horses was fairly good.

When I reached Acuculin, I immediately asked whether the lord had arrived or the messenger returned, and they answered that they had not, so I spoke to the hostage and asked him why it was. He answered that he did not know unless the lord was awaiting to hear that I had arrived there, and that now he was aware of it he would come. I waited one day, and, as he did not come, I again spoke to the hostage; and he said that he did not know the reason, but that if I would give him some Spaniards he knew where his lord was and would go with them to call him. So ten Spaniards immediately left with him, and he led them a good five leagues through forests to some hamlets which they found empty, but