With the aid of this map, a
compass, and such guides as from time to time he could pick up on
his journey, he proposed to traverse that broad and level tract
which forms the base of Yucatan, and spreads from the Coatzacualco
river to the head of the Gulf of Honduras. "I shall give your
Majesty," he begins his celebrated letter to the emperor, describing
this expedition, "an account, as usual, of the most remarkable
events of my journey, every one of which might form the subject of a
separate narration." Cortes did not exaggerate.
The beginning of the march lay across a low and marshy level,
intersected by numerous little streams, which form the head waters
of the Rio de Tabasco, and of the other rivers that discharge
themselves to the north, into the Mexican Gulf. The smaller streams
they forded, or passed in canoes, suffering their horses to swim
across as they held them by the bridle. Rivers of more formidable size
they crossed on floating bridges. It gives one some idea of the
difficulties they had to encounter in this way, when it is stated,
that the Spaniards were obliged to construct no less than fifty of
these bridges in a distance of less than a hundred miles. One of
them was more than nine hundred paces in length. Their troubles were
much augmented by the difficulty of obtaining subsistence, as the
natives frequently set fire to the villages on their approach, leaving
to the wayworn adventurers only a pile of smoking ruins.
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