Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/110

80 Moreover, so many mosquitos swarmed on the sand dunes where we were camped that we could get no sleep because of them. No wonder, then, that those of our number who had Indians in the island of Cuba wished to go home. This was particularly the case with the friends and onhangers of Velasquez. Cortes, observing all this, gave orders that we should go to Quiahuitztlan, a walled town, which one of our exploring ships had seen some miles to the north.

While preparations were making for our start, friends and adherents of Diego Velasquez asked Cortes how we were to make the journey without provisions, seeing it was impossible to go further by sea; that already thirty-five of our soldiers had died from wounds received at Tabasco and from sickness and hunger; that the country we were now in was a large one, its peoples many, and no doubt they would soon attack us. How much better, they said, for us to go back to Cuba and account to Diego Velasquez for the gold he had gained, which was really a large sum when all the precious things Montezuma sent were counted.

Still Cortes answered that he did not think it wise to go back without having seen the country. Up to this time, he said, we had no reason to complain of our ill-luck; rather we should give thanks to God who had everywhere lent us aid; if we had lost men, that always happened in war and hardships. We