was received in every township he came to, and the festivities which took place in his honour, were really astonishing. On his march he was also joined by fifty men who had but recently arrived from Spain, all light-hearted extravagant young fellows.
In order that his troops might not be detained on the road for want of provisions, and to procure these the more readily, he divided his army into two bodies, which marched by different routes to Guacasualco. Immediately about his person were Sandoval, the factor and the veedor, who vied with each other in their attentions to him; but none of them carried their politeness so far as the factor, who, whenever he addressed Cortes, bowed himself almost double, with his head uncovered, and took every opportunity, under the most flattering assurances of his devoted attachment, to dissuade him from this tedious and perilous expedition, and summoned to his aid all the subtlety of rhetoric in representing to him the evils that might ensue from it, and the little advantage he could gain. He would often sing out, when riding along at the side of Cortes:
Turn back, dear uncle, turn back;
Dear uncle, turn back!
To this Cortes likewise replied, in a singing tone of voice:
Forward, nephew; forward, nephew;
Let not omens dishearten you;
The will of God it must be done;
Forward, nephew; forward, nephew!
When the division which was commanded by Cortes himself arrived in the neighbourhood of Orizaba, the property of the squinting Ojedo, Doña Marina was married to Juan Xaramillo, and the hymeneal knot was solemnly tied in presence of witnesses.