How eighty of us on the second day after our arrival in Buena Vista, marched out under the command of Luis Marin to explore the country and to search for provisions.
The population of the town of Buena Vista consisted of forty Spaniards, four Spanish ladies and two mulattoes. The whole of these people were suffering from ill health, and had a yellow sickly appearance about them. They had no provisions, and suffered as much from hunger as we did ourselves, nor could any one tell where we were to go in search of maise for this purpose. Cortes, therefore, saw that there was not a moment to be lost, and he despatched Luis Marin, with the men of Guacasualco, into the country.
We were altogether eighty in number, and we all set out on foot, in order first to see whether horses would be able to traverse the country. An Indian, of Cuba, accompanied us as guide to some townships which lay thirty-two miles further up the country. When we reached these we found, to our inexpressible joy, that they contained great abundance of maise, beans, and other vegetables; besides that, the whole neighbourhood was literally sown with cocoa-nut trees. We first feasted sumptuously ourselves and then despatched a courier to our general, desiring him to send us all the Mexican troops to fetch away the maise, forwarding him in advance ten bushels of the latter as a supply for the moment, and begged of him to send our horses to us.
When Cortes learnt that we had arrived in so fertile a neighbourhood, and was told by some Indian merchants that the road to Naco, where Christobal de Oli was beheaded, led through the township where we were staying, he ordered Sandoval to follow us with the greater part of