willing ear to this advice, and began by despatching his chief officer Pedro de Garro to the northern provinces, in search of some harbour where he might found a colony, and send his majesty thence an account of the countries he had subdued and colonized; and he doubted not but that his endeavours would be crowned with success, since the provinces of which he should petition to be the governor lay so far distant from Terra Firma.
Respecting these matters, Sandoval and Garro had several secret conferences with each other, which terminated in the former writing on the subject to Cortes, at Truxillo, to induce him to confer on Hernandez the government of Nicaragua. For this purpose he despatched five of our men, and an equal number of Garro's troops, along the coast, to Truxillo, in order to convey his letters to Cortes. These men took with them twenty of Garro's Indians, in order to assist them in crossing the rivers. Their march, however, was attended with very little success, for they could neither pass the river Pichin nor the river Balama, both of which were greatly swollen, so that they returned to Naco, after a fortnight's absence. Sandoval was excessively annoyed at this circumstance, and spoke in very severe terms to the person who had the command of this small detachment. He then ordered captain Luis Marin, with ten of us, and five of Garro's men, immediately to set out for Truxillo, and to march thither in a direct line through the country. I was likewise desired to accompany Luis Marin, and we all set out on foot. We passed through a number of hostile townships, though, if I were to relate all the battles we fought with the natives; the difficulties we had to encounter on this journey; the rivers and estuaries we had to cross, sometimes by means of swimming, sometimes in canoes; the hunger we sustained for several days, I should not finish so easily. There were days in which we crossed, either in canoes or by swimming, three rapid streams. On approaching nearer to the coast, we had to pass arms of the sea which abounded with alligators, and when we arrived at the river Xaqua, which lay forty miles from Triunfo de la Cruz, it took us two whole days before