St. Domingo. For this purpose he fitted out a vessel and sent on board the best provisions that were to be had, and likewise took this opportunity of forwarding despatches to the Hieronymite brotherhood, in which he gave them a full account of the hazardous expedition to the coast of the Honduras, and of the arrangements he had made in Mexico for the government of New Spain, during his absence. He likewise mentioned every circumstance from the day he had despatched Oli with an armament to the Honduras, down to the tragical death of the latter; and concluded by giving an account of the country and of the rich gold mines it possessed.
In order that these passengers, on arriving at Cuba, might have sufficient credit there, he gave them a number of valuable jewels out of his private treasure, besides several pieces of his golden dinner service. As chief in command of this vessel, he appointed his cousin Avalos, whom he desired to touch at the island of Cozumel, and to carry away prisoners from thence twenty-five soldiers, who had been left there by some officer to levy contributions upon the inhabitants.
The vessel set sail with a favorable wind, and had alternately good and bad weather. She had already doubled the cape of Sant Antonio, and had arrived within seventy leagues of the Havannah, when a heavy storm arose, in which she was wrecked off the coast. The Franciscan monks, the captain Avalos, and a great number of others met with a watery grave; only a few, by great exertions, saved themselves in the boat, and others drifted on shore by clinging to pieces of wood.
The persons who thus luckily escaped soon spread the news through the island of Cuba that Cortes, with his whole army, was still in existence. The licentiate Pedro Lopez, who had also escaped destruction, hastened to St. Domingo, and there related to the royal court of audience every circumstance relative to Cortes' expedition to the Honduras, and how he was then staying at Truxillo occupied in subduing the surrounding