to them by an Indian runner (who hid it in his hair, having to pass through an enemy's country), and a quantity of beads as a ransom from their masters. The letter was as follows:
"Gentlemen and brothers,—Here in Cozumel I have been informed that you are detained prisoners by a cacique: I request as a favor that you will forthwith join me. I send a ship and soldiers, with whatever is necessary for your ransom, they have orders to wait eight days; but come with all dispatch to me, from whom you shall receive every assistance and protection. I am here with eleven ships and five hundred soldiers, with which I will, with the assistance of God, proceed to Champotan, Tabasco, and beyond."
Those two captives were named Aguilar and Guerrero. The master of the former received the ransom joyfully and set him free; but the latter was already married to an Indian woman, had three sons and was a great cacique and captain in their wars. Indeed, it is said that he conducted that bloody fight against Cordova, at Champotan. He was afraid to return to the Spaniards; and, moreover, his face was scarred and his ears and nose bored, after the Indian fashion.
"What would the Spaniards think of me," he said to Aguilar, "if I went back among them? Behold these three beautiful boys; I beseech you give me for them some of these green beads, and say that my brother sent them as a present to me from my own country." Then his wife joined in and abused Aguilar for wishing her husband to leave his family, and the poor fellow was only too glad to go on to the coast alone.
When he reached the coast the boat that had been left behind for him had departed. To his great joy, however, the fleet was obliged to put back to Cozumel, one of the vessels having sprung a leak, and he got into a canoe and
