Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/326

 vest, which was a most providential supply, repaying the labour it cost; for, had it not been found, we would have all inevitably perished by starvation.

I had all those provisions loaded on the ships, and embarked with all the people in that town who belonged to Gil Gonzalez, besides those who remained of my people; and this being done I set sail on the [passage missing in MS.] day of [passage missing in MS.], and steered to the port on the bay of San Andres. Having first landed all those who were able to walk and two horses I had with me on the ship, I ordered them to go to the said harbour and bay where they would find, or wait for, the people who were to come from Naco, for that road had been already travelled. The ships were dangerously overcrowded, so I sent a barque along the coast to enable them to cross certain rivers on their road; and, when I reached the said port, I found that the people from Naco had arrived there two days before me. I learned from them that all the others were well, and had a great store of maize and red peppers and many fruits of the country, though they had neither meat nor salt, as for two months they had not known what those things were.

I remained twenty days in this port, striving to establish some order amongst those people in Naco, and  Foundation of Natividad looking for a convenient place to found a settle ment; for that port is certainly the best which exists along the discovered coast of all this mainland, that is to say from the Gulf of Pearls to Florida. God willed that I should find a very good one, suitable for my purpose, for, after I had sent to explore some streams one or two leagues from the site of this town, good samples of gold were found; and, both on this account, and also because the port was so beautiful and had such an excellent, well-populated neighbourhood, it seemed to me that it would be for Your Majesty's good service to found a settlement here; I therefore sent a messenger to Naco