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…
his men whom he intended leaving behind; for himself he took the townships of
Guazpaltepec, which at that time was by far the best propertyin this province, and lay in the
neighbourhood of the mines,from which Sandoval collected above 15,000 pesos' worth of
gold, and he was quite surprised at his own good fortune. The chief command of the
province he gave to Luis Marin, and presented him with landsequal to an earldom; in the
course of time, however, these possessions turned out less valuable than was at first
expected. Sandoval also offered me some very good and valuable townships in this
province, andI wish to heavens I had accepted of them. These places were calledMaltlatan,
Ozotekipa, and Orizaba, where the viceroy at present has amill. I refused these possessions,
because I considered that I was in honour bound not to leave Sandoval, who was my
particular friend. He was well aware of my reasons, and in the subsequent campaigns I
made with him he strove in every way to further my views.
In this province Sandoval laid the foundation of a town, which, bythe desire of Cortes, he
named Medellin, after the latter's native place, in Estremadura. There was a bay in this
province, into which the Chalchocucea river [32] empties itself, or, as we termed it, the
Banderasstream, where we made the 16,000 pesos during the expedition underGrijalva; at
first all communication with Spain was from this harbour,until Vera Cruz became the chief
port.
We now marched towards the river Guacasualco, and we may havebeen about 240 miles
from the last-mentioned town, when we arrivedon the confines of the province of Citla, the
climate of which is the mostbracing of all, the country itself abounding in provisions, and
morethickly populated than any we had visited. It was of this province Iremarked that it
was forty-eight miles long, as many in breadth, witha vast population.
[Pg 140]
When we arrived at the river Guacasualco we sent for the caziques of the different
townships; but as three days passed by without any one making his appearance, or our
receiving any answer, we concluded the inhabitants were preparing to attack us. At first,
indeed, they hadresolved to oppose our crossing the river, but they soon came to amore
reasonable determination, and arrived in our camp on the fifth day with a supply of
provisions, and a few ornaments of very pure gold.They immediately offered to furnish us
with a sufficient number of large canoes, if we felt any inclination to cross the river.
Sandoval thankedthem for their kind offer, but previously held a consultation with usas to
whether it was advisable for all the troops to cross over at once;and we resolved that four
men should first pass over, to see how mattersstood in the township opposite, which lay
close to the river side, and to get the chief cazique, whose name was Tochel, into their
power. Four of our men accordingly went across the river, and after looking well about
them, they brought us word that everything wore the most peaceable aspect, and were
accompanied by the son of Tochel, whocame with another small present of gold. Sandoval
was vastly pleasedwith this news, and desired the caziques to furnish him with 100canoes,
which were fastened two and two together, to convey the horses across the river. It
happened to be the day of Pentecost whenwe crossed over, and for this reason we called the
township, which lay on this river, Villa de Espiritu Santo; also because it was the
anniversaryof the day on which we defeated Narvaez under the cry ofEspiritu Santo.
[Pg 141]
As this province submitted to our arms without offering any resistance,the flower of the
troops which went out with Sandoval onthis occasion, settled down here; as for instance,
besides Sandoval himself, Luis Marin, Diego de Godoy, Francisco de Medina, Francisco
Marmolejo, Francisco de Lugo, Juan Lopez de Aguirre, Hernando deMontes de Oca, Juan
de Salamanca, Diego de Azamar, Mexia Rapapelo, Alonso de Grado, the licentiate
Ledesma, Luis de Bustamente, Pedro Castellar, the captain Briones, a certain Mantilla,
myself and several other cavaliers and men of distinction, all of whom I am unable to
mention by name; but the reader may have some idea of our numbers,when I inform him
that on days of parade, or whenever an alarm wassounded, we could always muster in the
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