and, instead of prosecuting the orders he had
received, he set sail for Puerto de Cavallos, in lat. 10 deg. N. 54, near
which he built a town, which he named _Triumpho de la Cruz_. He made Gil
Gonzales de Avila prisoner, and killed his nephew, and all the Spaniards
who were with him, except one child; thus acting in direct opposition to
Cortes, who had expended, in fitting out the present expedition, the sum
of 80,000 castellans of gold, entirely to gratify Olid[55]. On learning
this treachery, Cortes went by land from Mexico in the month of October
1524, to take revenge on Olid, carrying with him a force of 300 Spaniards,
part foot, and part horse, and accompanied by Quahutimoc, king of Mexico,
and many of the chief Mexican nobles. On coming to the town of Spiritu
Santo, he procured ten guides from the caciques of Tavasco and Xicalanco,
who likewise gave him a map painted on cotton cloth, delineating the
situation of the whole country, from Xicalanco to Naco and Nito, and even
as far as Nicaragua, with their mountains, hills, fields, meadows, rivers,
cities, and towns; and Cortes ordered three ships from the harbour of
Medellin to follow him along the coast[56]. When he had reached the city
of Izancanac, Cortes learned that King Quahutimoc and his Mexicans had
conspired to betray or destroy him and his Spaniards; wherefore he hanged
the king and two of his principal nobles. Cortes then proceeded to
Mazatlan; and from thence to Piaca, which stands in the middle of a lake,
and is the chief city of a province of the same name, and hereabout he
began to learn tidings of the Spaniards under Olid, of whom he was in
search. From thence he proceeded to Zuzullin, and came at length to Nito;
from whence he went to a bay on the coast, called St Andre, where,
finding a good haven, he built a town called Natividad de nuestra Sennora.
He went thence to Truxillo, on the coast of Honduras, where he was well
received by the Spanish settlers. While here, a ship brought intelligence
of an insurrection having broke out in Mexico during his absence; on
which, he ordered Gonsalo de Sandoval to march with his company by land,
from Naco to Mexico, by the ordinary and safest road of Quahutemallan, or
Guatimala, towards the South Sea; and, leaving his cousin Ferdinando de
Saavedra to command in Truxillo, he went himself by sea along the coast
of Yucutan to Chalchicocca, now called St Juan de Ullhua, and thence to
Medellin and Mexico, where he was