Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/324

 dark, some of the Indians fell into the water, and I believe many were drowned. The current soon whirled us quickly away, and very shortly after we could hardly hear their shouts. The rest of the night passed without any further encounter, though now and then we heard faint cries from the distance, or from the bluffs of the river. The banks of the river are lined with beautiful plantations.

At daybreak, we found ourselves about five leagues from the mouth of the river, where it flows into the gulf; the brigantine was waiting for us there at the gulf, and we arrived about noon, so that in one day and one night we covered twenty long leagues in descending that river. Wishing to transfer the provisions from the rafts to the brigantine, I found that everything had been wet, and seeing that, were it not dried, all would be spoiled and our labour lost, I had the dry separated from the wet and placed in the brigantine, while the rest I placed in the barque and the canoes and sent it as quickly as possible to the town where it might be dried; for, on account of the swamps about that gulf, there was no place there where this could be done. Thus they left, and I ordered the canoes and barques to return immediately to help me transport the people, as the brigantine and one canoe which remained were insufficient to carry them all.

After the barques and canoes had left, I set sail, and went to the place where my people who had gone overland were to meet me; and there I waited for them three days, at the end of which time they arrived in very good condition, except for one Spaniard, who, they said, had eaten certain herbs on the road and died instantly. They brought with them an Indian whom they had captured in that town where I had left them; he was going about unguardedly, and, as he was different from the natives of the country not only in language but also in dress, I