Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/334

 we took leave of him and came here as he had ordered us to do; and to inform your worship the more quickly, he despatched the brigantine so that assistance might reach us the sooner.

Having arrived at the port of San Andres, also called Caballos, we found there a caravel which had recently come from the Islands; and, as that port did not seem to us the proper place for a settlement, and as we had heard about this one, we loaded all our heavy baggage on to that caravel and embarked, taking with us the captain and forty men, while the horsemen and others remained on land, keeping nothing but the clothes on our backs, so as to be freer and unencumbered in case of accident on our march. The captain gave his full powers to one of the alcaldes, who is now here present, whom he ordered us to obey during his absence; the other municipal officers went with him in the caravel. Thus we parted from each other to meet again in this port, and, during our march, we had some encounters with the natives who killed two Spaniards and some of the Indians whom we had brought for our service.

Upon arriving in a dreadful plight at this port, the horses unshod, but all of us happy in the expectation of rinding the captain with our baggage and arms, we were more than afflicted to find nothing at all, while we were ourselves almost stark naked, destitute of arms and iron tools, all of which the captain had taken in the caravel. We were perplexed and knew not what to do with ourselves, until, after consulting together, we decided to wait for the relief which was to come from your worship, about which we entertained no doubts. So we immediately set about founding our town and took possession of the country for your worship, in the name of His Majesty, as your worship may see from the official acts drawn up before the notary public of the municipal council.

Five or six days later, a caravel appeared at sea, about two leagues from this place, and the alguacil immediately went in a canoe to discover what caravel it was; and he brought us news that it belonged to the bachelor in law, Pedro Moreno, a resident of Española, who came by the order of the judges residing in that island, for the purpose