We all greatly rejoiced at this information, and it was not long before Tapia himself arrived with the strange-looking Spaniard. As they passed by us many of our men still kept inquiring of Tapia which among them was the Spaniard? although he was walking at his very side, so much did his countenance resemble that of an Indian. His complexion was naturally of a brownish cast, added to which his hair had been shorn like that of an Indian slave: he carried a paddle across his shoulder, had one of his legs covered with an old tattered stocking; the other, which was not much better, being tied around his waist. An old ragged cloak hung over his shoulders, his maltatas was in a much worse condition. His prayerbook, which was very much torn, he had folded in the corner of his cloak.
When Cortes beheld the man in this attire, he, as all the rest of us had done, asked Tapia where the Spaniard was? When Geronimo heard this, he cowered down after the Indian fashion, and said: "I am he." Upon this Cortes gave him a shirt, a coat, a pair of trousers, a cap and shoes, from our stores. He then desired him to give us an account of the adventures of his life, and explain how he had got into this country.
He said, though still in broken Spanish, that his name was Geronimo d'Aguilar, and was a native of Ecija. About eight years ago he had been shipwrecked with fifteen men and two women, on a voyage between Darien and the island of St. Domingo, which they had undertaken on account of a lawsuit between a certain Enciso and a certain Valdivia. They had 10,000 pesos on board, and papers relating to the lawsuit. The ship struck against a rock, and they had not been able to get her off again. The whole of the crew then got into the boat, in the hopes of making the island of Cuba or Jamaica, but were driven on shore by the strong currents, where the Calachionies had taken them prisoners and distributed them among themselves. The most of his unfortunate companions had been sacrificed to their gods, and some had died of grief, of which also both the women pined away; being soon worn out by the hard labour of grinding, to which they had been forced by the Indians. He himself had also been doomed as a sacrifice to their idols, but made his escape during the night, and fled to the cazique, with whom he had last been staying, whose name, however, I cannot now remember. Of all his companions, he himself and a certain Gonzalo Guerrero, were only living. He had tried his best to induce him to leave, but in vain.
When Cortes heard this, he returned thanks to the Almighty, and told the Spaniard that he hoped, with the blessing of God, he would never find reason to regret the determination he had taken. He then put some questions to him about the country and its inhabitants. Aguilar said he was not able to give him much information about either, as he had been treated like a slave, having been merely employed to fetch wood, water, and to work in the maise-plantations. It was only upon one occasion he was sent on some business to a distance of about twelve miles from his village, but, owing to a heavy burden he had to carry and the weak state of his body, he had not even been able to reach that distance; for the rest, he had been given to understand that the country was very thickly populated. With regard to his companion Alonso Guerrero, he had married an Indian woman, and was become the father of three children. He had in every respect adopted the Indian customs, – his cheeks were tattooed, his ears pierced, and his lips turned down. He was a sailor by profession, native of Palos, and was considered by the Indians to be a man of great strength. It might have been about a year ago that a squadron, consisting of three vessels, had touched at the promontory of Cotoche, (probably the expedition under Hernandez de Cordoba,) when Guerrero advised the inhabitants to commence hostilities, who, in common with the caziques of a large district, commanded on that occasion. Cortes here remarked, that he very much wished to get the man into his power, for his staying among the Indians would do us no good.
The caziques of Cozumel showed Aguilar every possible friendship when they heard him speak in their language. Aguilar advised them always to do honour to the image of the holy Virgin and cross we had set up, as they would prove a blessing to them. It was also upon his advice they begged of Cortes to give them letters of recommendation to other Spaniards who might run into this harbour, in order that they might not be molested by them. Cortes readily complied with this request; and, after mutual protestations of friendship had passed between us, we weighed anchor, and set sail for the river Grijalva.
For the rest, I can assure the reader that what I have related of Aguilar is all the man told us himself, although the historian Gomara gives a very different account; which, however, should not excite our surprise, as he merely thereby intended to divert his readers with some strange story.
CHAPTER XXX
How we re-embark and sail for the river Grijalva, and what happened to us on our voyage there.
On the 4th of March, 1519, the day after we had had the good fortune to obtain such an excellent and trustworthy interpreter, Cortes gave orders for re-embarking. This took place in the same way as before, and similar instructions were issued with regard to the night signals with the lanterns. For some time we had the most favorable weather imaginable; when, towards evening, it suddenly changed, the wind blowing most violently against us, so that all our vessels were in danger of being cast on shore. Towards midnight, it pleased God the wind should abate, and, when daylight broke forth, our vessels again joined each other; one only was missing, that namely of Velasquez de Leon, which occasioned a good deal of anxiety, for we concluded she had been wrecked off some of the shallows. We did not discover her loss until midday; and as night was now fast approaching, and the vessel still nowhere to be seen, Cortes told our principal pilot Alaminos that we ought not to continue our course without gaining some certain knowledge as to her fate: signals were, therefore, made for all the vessels to drop anchor, to give the missing ship time to come up with us, on the supposition it had been driven into some harbour and there retained by contrary winds. Alaminos, still finding she did not make her appearance, said to Cortes, "You may be sure, sir, that she has run into some harbour or inlet along this coast, where she is now wind-bound; for her pilot Manquillo has twice before visited these seas, once with Hernandez de Cordoba, the second time under Grijalva, and is acquainted with this bay." Upon this it was resolved that the whole squadron should return to the bay which Alaminos was speaking of, in search of the vessel: to our great joy we indeed found her riding there at anchor, and we all remained here for one day. During this time, Alaminos, with one of our principal officers named Francisco de Lugo, went on shore in two boats; they found the country inhabited, and saw several regular maise-plantations: they likewise met with places where salt was manufactured, and saw four cues, or large temples, with numerous figures, mostly in the shape of women, and of considerable height; whence this promontory was called la punta de las Mujeres, (the promontory of women.) Aguilar observed that this was the spot where he was once a slave among the Indians; here his master had found him sunk beneath the weight of the heavy burden which he had forced him to carry: neither was the township far off where Alonso Guerrero had settled himself. Every inhabitant possessed gold, but in small quantities; he would show us the way, if we were desirous of going there. To which Cortes said, laughingly, he had not gone out for the sake of such trifles, but to serve God and his king. In the meantime he despatched Escobar, one of our commanders, with a fast-sailing vessel of small tonnage, to the Terminos bay, there to examine the country and search for a secure spot to found a colony; also to inform us whether game really was so abundant there as had been represented. All this was done according to the advice of our chief pilot, to save the trouble of running in there with the whole fleet on our passing by. Escobar, when he had explored the harbour, was merely to leave some sign on both sides of the entrance, either by felling trees or by leaving something in writing, from which we should know that he had entered safely, or that, having fully explored the harbour, he was tacking about until we fell in with him again.
With these instructions Escobar set sail, and ran into Terminos bay, where he