Our further march now lay through Tepetitan and Iztapa. In our road we had to pass the deep river Chilapa, where we were detained four days in constructing boats to ferry over the army without danger. Further up this river I knew there was a township, which likewise bore the name of Chilapa. I therefore proposed to our general to despatch five of our Indian guides to this place, and request the inhabitants to come down with their canoes. To this Cortes readily agreed, and he ordered one of our men to accompany the Indians thither, who succeeded so well, that they returned with two caziques, besides six large canoes laden with provisions. With these and the boats we had constructed, the whole of the troops safely crossed the river; but, as I have said before, all this cost us four whole days.
We then arrived in the township of Tepetitan, which was quite deserted by its inhabitants, and every house had been burnt to the ground. The inhabitants of this place, we were told, had been at war with their neighbours, and a severe battle had recently been fought between them, in which the former were defeated with great loss, when the enemy destroyed their town by fire, and returned home with a great number of prisoners.
For the next three days after we had passed the river Chilapa, our route lay through one continued bog, in which our horses often sank up to their girths. The next township we came to was Iztapa, where we did not meet a living soul, for the inhabitants, from fear of us, had all fled across a rapid river. We, however, went instantly in pursuit of them, and after some time we came up with the caziques, and a number of men, women, and children. Cortes, by means of Doña Marina, spoke very kindly to them, and restored to their families four women and three men, whom we had captured among the mountains. In gratitude for this, and in