Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/45

Rh matchlocks and good swords, however, as soon as we got on shore. Still they kept up the fight against us, each selecting a man against whom, as at a target, they shot. At length we were able to drive them back to the wells of the town. We had taken the precaution to put on cotton cuirasses, yet in the combat we lost seven soldiers, had over sixty men wounded, and our captain, Juan de Grijalva, got three arrow wounds and lost two of his teeth.

Not a single native stayed in the town, which, after putting our enemy to flight, we entered to dress our wounds and bury the dead. The three we made prisoners our captain treated with every kindness, gave them green beads and small bells to give to the people to gain their good will, and sent them to summon their chief. They left us, indeed, but took good care not to come back.

I shall never forget this place because of the immense locusts we saw here. While we were fighting they jumped up and kept flying in our faces, and as the Indians were storming us with arrows at the same time, we sometimes mistook the locusts for arrows. But as soon as we saw our mistake, we made another worse, for when the arrows were coming towards us, we thought them only flying locusts, and in consequence we suffered greatly.

Making our way towards the west, sailing along the coast by day and at night lying to on account of