Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/315

 feet. We came to some maize plantations, with a house in the midst of them, where we captured three women and a man, who were doubtless the owners of these plantations. They guided us to other plantations, where we took two more women, who, in turn, led us by a road to a very large plantation, in the midst of which stood forty very small huts which seemed to have been recently built. It would appear, however, that our arrival was known, for the village was deserted and all the people had fled to the mountains; but, as we came upon them so suddenly, they could not carry off their provisions, so they had to leave us something, especially fowls, partridges, pigeons, and pheasants, which they kept in cages; there was, however, no dried maize, and no salt. I passed the night there, and the fowls and some green maize which we found somewhat assuaged our hunger.

We had been there more than two hours when two of its inhabitants came, very much surprised to find such guests in their houses; they were captured by my scouts, and, on being asked if they knew of any town near there, they answered yes, and that they would guide me to it the next day but that we could arrive only very late, almost at night. The next morning, therefore, we began our march, guided by these two Indians, over roads still worse than those of the day before; for, besides being quite as overgrown with brushwood, we had at almost every arrow's shot to cross one of the many rivers which empty into that gulf. It is owing to the great accumulation of waters coming down from the mountains that these gulfs and lagoons are formed and that the river flows with such rapidity at its mouth, as I have told Your Majesty. Following our road in this wise, we travelled seven leagues without seeing any inhabited places, during which distance we crossed forty-five large rivers, not counting many creeks. On the road we captured three women, who were coming with loads of maize from that