Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/307

 salt, and the cores of palm trees. Neither did we find any food in these towns of Taniha, for, being in the near neighbourhood of the Spaniards, they were deserted, although, had the natives known the miserable plight in which I afterwards found the Spaniards, they might have felt safe from being attacked by them. The news that we were so near to them made us forget all our past troubles and gave us courage to support our present ones, which were not less great; especially that of hunger, which was the worst of all, because even all those palmettos without salt were in insufficient quantity, since they had to be cut with such great difficulty from thick and tall palm trees that it took two men a day's hard work to cut what they could eat in an hour.

Those Indians who brought me news of the Spaniards told me that, before reaching Nito, I would have two days' march over a bad road, and that, near by, there was a large river which could be crossed only in canoes, for it was so wide, and the current so strong, that it would be impossible to swim. Upon hearing this, I sent fifteen Spaniards on foot in that direction, guided by one of those Indians, and ordered them to explore the roads and the river, and see if they could encounter any of those Spaniards, and discover to what group or party the settlers at Nito belonged, whether to those I had sent with Cristobal de Olid, or to those of Francisco de las Casas, or to those of Gil Gonzales de Avila. So they left, and the Indian guided them to the said river, where they took canoes from some traders and hid themselves there for two days, at the end of which time four Spaniards came in a canoe to fish. They seized them, not letting any escape, nor had the people of the town noticed the occurrence. When they were brought before me, I learned that the people there belonged to Gil Gonzales de Avila, and that they were all ill and almost starved to death, so I immediately despatched, in that same