The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. 2

1/25/22, 8:50 PM The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo written by himself, containing a true an…
marching hither, in company of several cavaliers, in search ofCortes, to hasten his return to
Mexico. He likewise gave us full particularsof everything that had taken place in this town
during ourabsence, and how the government of New Spain had been offered toAlvarado,
who had not dared to accept of it, from fear of the factor.
After two days' further march, we came up with Alvarado himself,who was encamped, with
his men, in a township, called CholutecaMalalaca. It would, indeed, be a difficult task for
me to describe the delight he experienced when we told him of Cortes' departure for
Mexico, which was the more excessive, as he was now spared the furtherfatigues of a long
march, on which his troops had already suffered many hardships. In this township we
likewise met several of Pedro Arias' officers, one of whom was named Garavito, and
another Campannon, who said they were despatched by Arias to discover new countries,
andto settle about some boundaries with Alvarado. The whole of our troops,and the two
officers of Arias, remained three days in Choluteca, fromwhich place Alvarado despatched
a certain Gaspar Arias de Avila, whohad settled in Guatimala, to the governor Arias, as we
understood, respecting the preliminaries of a marriage, which is indeed most likely, as
Gaspar Arias was a great adherer to Alvarado.
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On the fourth day we left Choluteca, and continued our march tothe province of Guatimala,
but before we could reach the territory ofCuzcatlan, through which our route immediately
lay, the rainy seasonset in, and we found the river Lempa so greatly swollen, that it seemed
an impossibility for us ever to cross it. The only resource we had leftwas to fell a ceiba tree
of very large dimensions, of which we hollowed out a canoe of such magnitude, that
nothing was ever seen equal to itin this country before. Even then it took us five whole
days before we had all passed across, during which time we suffered dreadfully from
hunger, as we had not a grain of maise left.
After we had passed the river, we came to the townships of Chapanastec, where the
inhabitants killed one of our men, namedNicuesa, and wounded three others. These men
had gone out insearch of provisions, and were attacked before we could come up totheir
assistance. As we did not wish to be detained any longer,we would not give ourselves the
trouble of chastising the inhabitants for their murderous attack. This took place in that
provincewhere at present the town of San Miguel is built. From this place wecame into the
territory of Cuzcatlan, the inhabitants of which we foundvery hostilely inclined towards us;
nevertheless, we had plenty of provisions; and we now came into some townships in the
neighbourhood of Petapa, where the Guatimaltecs were lying in wait for us, in deep
hollows, between steep rocks. It took us three days before we couldsucceed in forcing this
passage. Here I was slightly wounded by an arrow.
In this way we at length reached Petapa, and the day following wearrived in a valley, to
which we gave the name of Fuerto, and in whichat present the town of Guatimala stands.
At that time the whole ofGuatimala was up in arms against us, so that we had to fight our
waythrough the country. I shall never forget the dreadful earthquake wefelt here. We were
marching steadily along the slope of a rising ground,when the earth began to tremble so
strongly, that several of our soldiers were no longer able to stand on their legs, and fell
down; and thisfearful shaking continued for a considerable length of time. From thisplace
we had a good road to Old Guatimala, where the two caziques Sacachul and Cinacan
generally resided. However, the whole armed force of Guatimala lay in wait for us, in a
deep hollow, near the town, to prevent our entry; but we soon dispersed them with
considerableloss, and we took up our quarters for the night in the town, whichcontained
many large and beautiful buildings, owing to the circumstance of all the caziques, who
governed the neighbouring provinces,residing there. The next morning we again quitted the
town, and encampedon the plain, where we constructed ourselves huts. Here we layfor the
space of ten days, as Alvarado had twice summoned the inhabitantsof Guatimala, and other
townships of the surrounding neighbourhood,to submit, and was desirous of knowing what
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