Zacatula. This armament, indeed, reached the Moluccas, and visited several other islands, but suffered dreadfully from heavy tempests, hunger, and disease, and many of the men died. One of the sailors who accompanied this expedition I saw three years after at Mexico, and he told me marvellous things of the towns and islands which Saavedra had visited. If my memory is correct, (for many years have since elapsed,) Saavedra, with all his men, were taken prisoners by the Portuguese there, and transported to Spain, or brought back thither at his majesty's request.
After this first armament had departed, Cortes fitted out two more vessels with eighty musketeers and crossbow-men. The command of these vessels he gave to a certain Diego Hurtado Mendoza, who set sail from Acapulco in the month of May, 1532, for the discovery of islands and new countries. The captain Hurtado, however, did nothing of all this, and durst not even venture far out at sea, so that the greater part of his men at length grew wearied of sailing about to no purpose, refused all further obedience to him, and deserted with one of the vessels; though these men afterwards positively declared that the two vessels parted with the captain's consent, who granted them permission to return with one of the vessels to Spain: but this account cannot be credited, and the men no doubt took forcible possession of the vessel. However, they had not been separated long before the vessel was cast on shore by a severe storm, and, after undergoing many fatigues, the crew arrived at Xalisco, whence the news of their misfortune speedily reached Mexico. Hurtado, in the meantime, continued to sail along the coast, but all at once his vessel disappeared, nor was she or any of those on board ever after heard of.
Cortes was excessively grieved at this loss, yet it did not deter him from fitting out other armaments for the same purpose. He had already built two more vessels at his own expense, which were lying in the harbour of Guantepec, and were manned with seventy soldiers. The command of one of these vessels he gave to a cavalier named Diego Bezerra de