hands; and they
assured him they would persuade Aguilar, by fair words, to agree to it,
particularly as he was always suffering from ill health, and it was
perfectly evident the service of God and the true interests of his
majesty must suffer in his hands. But whatever they might say to Cortes,
he would not enter into their schemes, and always repeated that old
Aguilar must govern alone.

Aguilar, indeed, was in a rapid decline, and so feeble, that to keep him
alive he was obliged to be suckled by a Spanish woman; besides that, he
drank quantities of goats' milk. He likewise about this time lost one of
his sons, whom he had brought with him, of the same pestilential fever
which hurried Ponce de Leon into the grave.

I must now go back in my history a little, and relate what befel the
captain Luis Marin, who, with the troops under his command, had remained
behind in Naco, where he was waiting to hear from Sandoval whether
Cortes had embarked for Mexico or not; but we never received any tidings
from him, as Saavedra, from sheer malice, had omitted to forward us the
letters of Sandoval and Cortes, in which they sent us information of
their intended departure for Mexico, with orders for us to march thither
overland. As we had thus waited in vain for a length of time for some
tidings from Truxillo, Luis Marin determined, with our unanimous
consent, to despatch a few horse thither, to ascertain how matters
stood. There were ten of us that left Naco on this occasion, under the
command of Francisco Marmolejo. We had already fought our way through
various hostile tribes up to Olancho, which at present is called
Guayape, abounding in lucrative gold mines, when we happened to meet two
Spanish invalids and a negro, who assured us that Cortes had set sail
several days ago for Mexico, with Sandoval and all the other
Conquistadores who were with him. They then added, that he had been
induced to embark from the universal solicitations of the citizens of
Mexico, who had despatched one of the Franciscan monks to Truxillo, to
hasten his departure. Saavedra had been left behind in this latter town
as commandant, and was further to subdue the surrounding country.

This intelligence filled all our hearts with joy, and we immediately
despatched a letter by some of the inhabitants of Olancho to Saavedra
for further information, and in the space of four days we received an
answer from him, confirming the account of the two Spaniards. We offer