strangers, who may beside have been guilty of excesses, and they made hostile demonstrations. Pineda showed a bold front, and proceeded to attack the town, but was surprised and killed, together with a number of soldiers and the horses.4 The rest escaped as best they could in two of the vessels, pursued by a fleet of canoes. One of the caravels was wrecked not far above Villa Rica, whereupon a portion of the men resolved to proceed by land rather than suffer starvation on board, for in the hurry of the flight the lockers had received no attention. Both the sea and land parties arrived at the Spanish port, where every care was given them.5 Thence they were forwarded to Tepeaca, where their cadaverous complexion and swollen bodies procured for them the nickname of ‘panzaverdetes,’ or green paunches. Hardship and bad food had carried a number past relief, and even in Tepeaca several died, including Camargo, as Bernal Diaz believes.
A month later, after the Quauhquechollan expedition, another vessel arrived with about fifty soldiers,6 under Miguel Diaz de Auz, an Aragonian cavalier. He had been sent to reinforce Pineda, but after remaining at Rio Pánuco for a month, without seeing even a native, he had come down to search for the fleet. The fame of Cortés and the promise of rich spoils induced him to follow the preceding party, in contradistinction to which his stout and lusty recruits were dubbed the ‘strong-backs.’7 Hearing that two other vessels had been fitted out to follow the Pánuco expeditions, and were probably now cruising along the coast, Cortés ordered a crew to be sent in pursuit, with the sole desire, as he expressed it, to save them from the fate which had so nearly overtaken Camargo. One was never heard of, and the other, the largest, entered the port before the searching vessel had left, it seems, bringing about one hundred and twenty men and sixteen horses. Camargo was induced to remonstrate with the captain against proceeding to Pánuco,