When these vessels arrived there immediately rose a dispute as to whom should be ferried across first, and Saavedra, with his brother Avalos, pretended to have a prior claim, because they happened to be related to Cortes, but Sandoval maintained that this honour was unquestionably due to the three reverend monks. Saavedra persisted, however, that as a relation of Cortes the precedence was due to him, and answered Sandoval in very unbecoming terms, whose blood now also began to boil, and the dispute rose to so high a pitch that Saavedra drew his dagger. Sandoval, who was standing up to his knees in the water to prevent the boats being overloaded, rushed upon his antagonist, and, seizing him by the hand in which he held the dagger, he dragged him headlong into the water. If the rest of us had not hastened up and parted them, Saavedra would most likely have ended his life in this affray, for the troops, almost to a man, were on Sandoval's side.
Four whole days were consumed before all our men had crossed over, during which time we had nothing to eat but the nuts we gathered from some low palm-trees, which we roasted on the fire and ate the kernels. One of our soldiers, named Tarifa, ventured across the river with his horse in a canoe, was upset, and both were most likely drowned, for no traces could be found of either. Two other horses met with a similar fate, one of which was the property of Solis Casquete, who behaved like a madman when he found his horse was lost, and wished our general, with the whole expedition, in the infernal regions.
The excessive hunger we endured during the time we were occupied in ferrying across, created altogether great discontent among the troops, and they murmured loudly against Cortes, and this dreadful march. When we arrived in the town we found our condition very little bettered, for there was neither any bread in the storehouses nor in the dwellings of the colonists; who, in the bargain, were even unacquainted with the surrounding neighbourhood, and only knew the way to two townships, which had long ago been deserted by the inhabitants. Cortes' first care