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from thofe on board. Upon this, Cortes appointed Alvarado, and San- 

 doval who already began to fhew himfelf the officer he afterwards was, 

 to take the command of the army in his abfence ; (Avila being pafTed 

 by, and Sandoval preferred on this occafion, firft caufed a certain jea- 

 loufy on the part of the former ;) he then fet out with four of the ca- 

 valry to Villa Rica, ordering thirty of the lighteft infantry to follow him 

 thither, which number accordingly arrived there that night. 



- • When we arrived .at Villa Rica, Efcalante offered to Cortes to go 

 with twenty men to the veffel, left (he (hould make her efcape, and that- 

 Cortes might take fome repofe ; but Cortes replied, that he could not^ 

 think of that, for "A lame goat took no afternoon's nap." Accord- 

 ingly, without eating a morfel, we proceeded along the coaft, and on 

 our road fell in with four Spaniards, who were fent to take poffeftion of 

 the country, by Captain Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda. One of thcfe, 

 who was named Guillen de la Loa, was a notary, and the reft attended 

 him as witneffes. Cortes having queftioned thefe men as to what 

 brought them there they replied, that Francifco de Garay, governor of 

 Jamaica, had obtained from the court, a commiffion of adelantado and 

 governor of fuch diftridts as he fhould difcover on that coaft, northward, 

 from the river of St. Peter and St. Paul, by virtue of which, he had 

 fent three ftiips^ with two hundred and fcventy foldiers, under the 

 captain already named, who was then in the river Panuco. Cortes 

 treated them with much kindnefs, and alked them if they thought that 

 we could get pofleflion of their fhip ; to which Guillen de la Loa re- 

 plied that they would do their utmoft to aflift us, but no figns nor in- 

 vitations that they made could induce thofe on board to approach, and 

 wc were told by them that their captain was aware of our being on the 

 coaft, and they fuppofed, when the boat did not come off, that we had 

 been difcovered. Cortes now bethought himfelf of a ftratagem, and it 

 was thisj he dreffed four of his foldiers in the clothes of thefe men, 

 and left them there upon the fpot, tracing back the way that he had 

 come along the fliore, fo that we might be obferved from the (hip. 

 Thus we proceeded, until we were out of fight of it, when we ftruck 



into 



