to prepare canoes, and to cross the river which was sufficiently dangerous, as it was broad, and its current so very strong that one horse was drowned and some of the Spaniards' baggage was lost. After crossing, I sent a couple of foot soldiers ahead with guides to open the road, whilst I, with the others, followed in the rear; and having travelled three days through a mountainous district, covered with forests, we came by a narrow trail to a large marsh, more than five hundred paces broad, to cross which we sought in vain to find a place; but one could not be found, neither up nor down, and the guides declared that it was useless to search for it unless we marched for twenty days towards the mountain chain.
This marsh occasioned more trouble than I can say, for to cross it seemed impossible, on account of its great size and of our having no canoes, though even
Cortes
Builds the
Great Bridge
had we had them the men and horses and heavy baggage could not have crossed, for both sides were surrounded by morasses, full of stumps and roots of trees, while to cross the horses in any other way was entirely hopeless; to think of turning back plainly meant the destruction of everybody, not only on account of the bad roads, and the heavy rain which had fallen and had so swollen the river that the bridge we had left was already destroyed, but also because the people were perfectly exhausted, and, having consumed our provisions, we would find nothing to eat; for we were numerous, there being, besides the Spaniards and the horses, more than three thousand natives with me. I have already told Your Majesty the difficulties in the way of advancing, and that no man's brain was equal to devising relief if God, Who is the true help and succour of all the afflicted, had not provided it. For I found a very small canoe, in which the Spaniards whom I had sent ahead to explore the road had crossed, and with it I sounded the marsh and found it to be four
