e intended leaving behind; for himself he
took the townships of Guazpaltepec, which at that time was by far the
best property in 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 lands equal
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, and I wish to
heavens I had accepted of them. These places were called Maltlatan,
Ozotekipa, and Orizaba, where the viceroy at present has a mill. 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, by the
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 Banderas
stream, where we made the 16,000 pesos during the expedition under
Grijalva; 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 have been about
240 miles from the last-mentioned town, when we arrived on the confines
of the province of Citla, the climate of which is the most bracing of
all, the country itself abounding in provisions, and more thickly
populated than any we had visited. It was of this province I remarked
that it was forty-eight miles long, as many in breadth, with a vast
population.

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 had
resolved to oppose our crossing the river, but they soon came to a more
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