Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/75

Rh products from the provinces through which they passed. To Cortés these valuables served to stimulate the desire for exploration by which a strait might be disclosed, and a route found to the Orient, and with this object he sent another party to examine the coast for a suitable harbor with timber for ship-building convenient. This was found at the mouth of Rio Zacatula, in the province of Zacatollan, and Villafuerte was thereupon sent with fully forty Spaniards, chiefly shipwrights, carpenters, sawyers, blacksmiths, and sailors, to form a settlement, and build two caravels and two brigantines, the former for sea expeditions, the others for coast exploration. A large number of allies joined, especially such as had been trained in work connected with the building of the first fleet. Some were employed in carrying spikes, cordage, sails, and other material from Vera Cruz and Mexico. The colony was reënforced from the abandoned settlement at Tzintzuntzan, and became now the headquarters for