122 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
the Indians. After this event the sailors take the vessel 
down the coast of Mexico to a port called Chiametla. 
Ximenes’ people, in the true spirit of the race to which 
they belong, represent the country in which tlieir pilot has 
been killed, as fruitful and thickly peopled, and the sea around 
it, stored with great quantities of pearl beds. So that the mis¬ 
fortunes of former voyages only serve to arouse the uncon 
querable spirit of this magistrate of San Diego de Cuba, to 
further effort in search of the rich islands and countries in the 
North Pacific. He accordingly gives public notice, that Her¬ 
nando Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, Marquis del Valle, 
His Majesty’s discoverer, &c. &c., designs to take command 
of a fleet for this purpose. Spaniards from all parts of the 
country enter his camp at Tehuantepec; three new ships are 
launched, well supplied with stores for a long cruise, and sent 
northward to Chiametla; thither Cortez goes, with a large 
body of priests, officers and soldiers, and several families, de¬ 
signing to settle in the territories he may discover; the ship 
of Ximenes, lying at Chiametla, empty and plundered, is fitted 
up as the fourth vessel of this little squadron; and Cortez and 
a part of his followers sail into the unknown north; enter 
the bay where Ximines was killed; and call it Santa Cruz, 
Bahia de la Paz. 
Having landed his people and stores at this place, he sends 
his ships back to Chiametla for a part of the stores and peo¬ 
ple which have been left. But tempests fall upon them, and 
contrary winds so thwart them, that only one ever returns 
to La Paz. Their stores and provisions consequently wane 
fast; the country around is desolate and barren; death gnashes 
his teeth upon them, and starvation walks a ghastly image 
through their pallid ranks; but Cortez sees a difficulty only to 
conquer it. He immediately puts to sea in his only remaining 
ship; crosses the gulf; coasts along its eastern shore for the 
space of fifty leagues, amid infinite dangers from rocks, currents 
and tempests; finds his lost ships stranded on the coast of 
