In the same year, 1523, Gil Gonзales de Avila, discovered and peopled a town called San Gil da Buena-vista, in lat. 14° N. almost in the bottom of the bay of Ascension or Honduras136. Likewise, on the 6th December of this year, Peter de Alvarado was sent by Cortes from Mexico with 300 foot, 170 horse, four field-pieces, and some Mexican nobles, to discover and conquer Quahutemallan, Utlatlan, Chiassa, Xochnuxco, and other towns towards the South Sea. After a most fatiguing march of 400 leagues, passing by Tecoantepec to Xochnuxco, he discovered and conquered the whole of that country, where he built a city called St Jago de Quahutemallan, now Guatimala, of which and of the country he subdued, he is said to have got the government. In this expedition they passed some rivers, the water of which was so hot that they could scarce endure to wade them. They found likewise certain hills which produced alum, and one out of which a liquor like oil distilled; likewise sulphur in great abundance, from which the Spaniards made excellent gunpowder137. On the 8th December of the same year, Cortes sent Diego de Godoy, with a hundred foot, thirty horse, two field-pieces, and many friendly Indians, to Spiritu Santo; where, joining the captain of that town, they went to Chamolla, the capital of a province of the same name, which they reduced under subjection138.

In February 1524, Cortes sent Roderigo Rangel, with 150 Spaniards, and many Tlaxcallans and Mexicans, against the Zapotecas and Nixtecas, and other provinces not yet well discovered. They were at first resisted, but soon defeated the natives, and reduced the country to subjection. In the same year, Roderigo de Bastidas was sent to discover and reduce the country of Santa Martha; but refusing to allow the soldiers to plunder a certain town, he was assassinated in his bed by Peter Villaforte, formerly his fast friend, who joined in the conspiracy against him. Pedro de Lugo and his son Don Alfonso were afterward governors of that place, where they conducted themselves as covetous tyrants, and became much disliked139. In the same year, the licentiate Lucas Vasques de Aillon obtained the government of Chicora from the emperor, on which he fitted out some vessels from St Domingo, and proceeded to explore and colonize that country; but he was lost with all his people. I know not how it should have happened, except by the righteous judgment of God, that so little should now remain of all the gold and precious stones which were got in the Antilles by the Spaniards; but much the greater part has been dissipated to little purpose, and nothing great or valuable has ensued from the discovery140.

In this same year, 1524, Cortes sent a fleet under the command of Christopher de Olid, to Cuba, to transport provisions and ammunition to Mexico, which had been purchased there by Alonso de Contreras; and Olid had orders to discover and colonize the country about Cape Higueras, and the Coast of Honduras, and likewise to send Diego Hartado de Mendoзa by sea, in search of a strait towards Darien, which was reported to pass that way into the South Sea, which object of research had been commanded by the emperor to be attended to. He sent also two ships from Panuco, to explore the coast from thence to Florida; and he commanded other vessels to examine the coast of the South Sea, between Zacatullan and Panama. On the arrival of Olid at Cuba, he entered into a league with Diego Velasquez against Cortes: and, instead of prosecuting the orders he had received, he set sail for Puerto de Cavallos, in lat. 10° N.141, near which he built a town, which he named Triumpho de la Cruz. He made Gil Gonzales de Avila prisoner, and killed his nephew, and all the Spaniards who were with him, except one child; thus acting in direct opposition to Cortes, who had expended, in fitting out the present expedition, the sum of 80,000 castellans of gold, entirely to gratify Olid142. On learning this treachery, Cortes went by land from Mexico in the month of October 1524, to take revenge on Olid, carrying with him a force of 300 Spaniards, part foot, and part horse, and accompanied by Quahutimoc, king of Mexico, and many of the chief Mexican nobles. On coming to the town of Spiritu Santo, he procured ten guides from the caciques of Tavasco and Xicalanco, who likewise gave him a map painted on cotton cloth, delineating the situation of the whole country, from Xicalanco to Naco and Nito, and even as far as Nicaragua, with their mountains, hills, fields, meadows, rivers, cities, and towns; and Cortes ordered three ships from the harbour of Medellin to follow him along the coast143. When he had reached the city of Izancanac, Cortes learned that King Quahutimoc and his Mexicans had conspired to betray or destroy him and his Spaniards; wherefore he hanged the king and two of his principal nobles. Cortes then proceeded to Mazatlan; and from thence to Piaca, which stands in the middle of a lake, and is the chief city of a province of the same name, and hereabout he began to learn tidings of the Spaniards under Olid, of whom he was in search. From thence he proceeded to Zuzullin, and came at length to Nito; from whence he went to a bay on the coast, called St Andre, where, finding a good haven, he built a town called Natividad de nuestra Sennora. He went thence to Truxillo, on the coast of Honduras, where he was well received by the Spanish settlers. While here, a ship brought intelligence of an insurrection having broke out in Mexico during his absence; on which, he ordered Gonsalo de Sandoval to march with his company by land, from Naco to Mexico, by the ordinary and safest road of Quahutemallan, or Guatimala, towards the South Sea; and, leaving his cousin Fйrdinando de Saavedra to command in Truxillo, he went himself by sea along the coast of Yucutan to Chalchicocca, now called St Juan de Ullhua, and thence to Medellin and Mexico, where he was well received. Cortes was absent eighteen months on this expedition, during which he travelled 500 leagues144, and suffered many hardships.

In the year 1525; Francis Pizarro, and Diego de Almagro, went from Panama to discover Peru, on the south of the fine, which they called Nueva Castillia. Pedro Asias, governor of Panama, refused to take any concern in this expedition, on account of certain evil news which had been brought to him by Francis Vezerra. Pizarro went first in a ship with 124 soldiers, and was followed by Almagro with seventy men in another ship. Almagro came to Rio de San Juan, in lat. 3° N., where he got 3000 pezoes of gold; and not finding Pizarro, of whom he was in search, he lost heart, and returned to Panama. Pizarro went first to the island of Gorgona, and thence to the isle of Gallo, from whence he proceeded to the river called Rio del Peru, in lat. 2° N. from which the rich and famous country of Peru derives its name. He sailed thence to the river of St Francis, and Cape Passaos, where he passed the equinoctial line, and came to Puerto Vejo, in lat. 1° S. and sailed on to the rivers of Chinapanpa, Tumbez, and Payta, in four or five degrees of southern latitude, where he received intelligence concerning King Atabalipa, and of the vast riches of his palace. On receiving this intelligence, Pizarro returned to Panama, from whence he went to Spain, where he solicited and obtained the government of the rich country he had discovered; having spent above three years in the discovery, with much labour and great danger145.