Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/71

Rh overland, and our duties were increased by charge of all our horses. Every one of us arrived safely in Havana. But five days passed without news of Cortes and his ship, and we began to wonder if he had been lost near the Isle of Pines. At last, to the great joy of us gentlemen and soldiers, his ship appeared over the horizon. It seemed he had had the misfortune, when off the Isle of Pines, to run aground, for many shallows are there, and all the cargo of his ship had to be taken ashore in boatfuls before she could be floated, and, after she had taken deeper water, to be carried back and again packed in.

The heart of Cortes leaped with joy when he saw assembled in Havana the many men of rank who had joined us. They brought to our stores quantities of cassava bread and cured bacon. And now cotton being very plentiful, we made well padded cuirasses to protect ourselves from the Indians' darts, arrows, lances and stones, and meanwhile Cortes ordered our heavy guns, ten brass cannon and a few falconets brought ashore, tested and furnished with balls and powder.

When all this was settled, the horses and stores of maize and hay for their provender were distributed among the ships. Cortes had a dark chestnut horse. Pedro de Alvarado and Hernando de Avila had jointly an excellent brown mare, broken in for sport and battle alike. Alonzo Hernandez Puertocarrero,