“While we were camped in the dunes, Indians from nearby towns came to barter their gold jewelry for our goods, but they had so little that we didn’t go through with the barter.

“After staying there for seven days and being devoured by the mosquitos, we saw that we were wasting our time. We now knew that we were on the mainland with large towns and numerous Indians. Our ration of cassava bread was moldy, full of weevils, and going sour. We didn’t have enough soldiers left in our company to found a settlement (thirteen had died and four were disabled. In light of such circumstances, we agreed to inform Don Diego Velazquez of our situation, hoping he would send some help, as Juan de Grijalva was eager to found a settlement even though he had few remaining soldiers.

“Thus we decided that Pedro de Alvarado should take the good ship San Sebastian to carry the message to Cuba. We had two reasons for this: one, Grijalva and the other captains were annoyed with Alvarado for having sailed up the Rio Papaloapan, and two, Alvarado had come on the expedition against his will and in bad health.

“We also agreed that all the wounded men, cloth and gold acquired by barter would be sent back with him. Then each captain wrote a letter to give to Velazquez, giving his own opinion of the situation, and the ship set sail.

“Shortly after we had left Cuba with Grijalva, Velazquez, afraid that disaster might befall us, sent a small ship with a few soldiers to look for us, commanded by Cristobal de Olid, a highly valued and resourceful captain who became Cortes’ quartermaster. Velazquez instructed him to follow Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba’s route until he caught up with us. However, his ship was struck by heavy gale winds while anchored off the coast of Yucatan, and the pilot ordered the cables to be cut to save it from sinking. He returned instead to Santiago de Cuba without his anchors.

“Diego Velazquez was waiting at the port for Olid and news of us. Olid’s return without any news made him even more anxious, but our ship with the wounded men, gold and cloth arrived shortly after. Pedro de Alvarado told the story of our discoveries, and the Governor overestimated the value of the gold which was in the form of jewelry. With Diego Velazquez were many businessmen from the city and other parts of the island. When the King’s officers took the royal fifth, due to His Majesty, everyone was astonished at the riches we had discovered.

“Pedro de Alvarado was a good story teller; Diego Velazquez could only embrace him repeatedly in his joy, and there followed eight days of rejoicings and sports. [1] As there had been plenty of rumors of rich lands, the sight of the gold only made the rumors of riches get exaggerated further throughout the islands and in Castile, but I shall recount this later and leave Diego Velazquez to his celebration and return to our ships at San Juan de Ulua.”

1. Chief among the Spanish military sports was wrestling of the Greco-Roman/Turkish type that involved throwing a man to the ground, not ground fighting as in contemporary wrestling. A decade later in the Peruvian highlands, the men of Francisco Pizarro watched their wrestling champion, Alonzo Diaz, defeat the Inca wrestling champion. The type of wrestling popular among these soldiers was perfectly intelligible to the native peoples that they encountered.