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of Villa Rica extended the fertile province of Pánuco, so called after the ruling chief, whose villages bordered the deep-flowing rivers that seek the sea at the present Tampico. It was skirted on the east by woody ranges from which a number of streams ran down the undulating slopes to a flat and sandy seaboard broken by a series of lagoons. While the shore-line was unhealthy and thinly inhabited, the interior was salubrious, and rumor placed there rich mines of gold. To And this gold had been the chief inducement for the expeditions of Garay, and the hostility of the natives, together with a few thousand pesos obtained by barter, had only served to confirm the rumor.

The revelation that others were intent on establishing an independent government so close to his own, had been a source of anxiety to Cortés ever since the encounter with Pineda in August 1519. He

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