Our agents sailed from Vera Cruz on the 20th December 1522, and no particular occurrence happened on the voyage to the Terceras or Aзores, except that one of the tigers broke loose and wounded some of the sailors, who were likewise obliged to kill the other on account of its ferocity. At the island of Tercera, Captain Quinones lost his life in a duel, occasioned by a quarrel about a lady, by which means our business was left in the hands of Alonzo de Avila. In continuing his voyage to Europe, he was taken by a French privateer, commanded by one Jean Florin, who took another ship from Hispaniola with a valuable cargo of sugar and hides, and 20,000 crowns in gold, and many pearls; so that with this and our treasure he returned very rich to France, where he made magnificent presents to the king and admiral of France, astonishing every body at the magnificence of the presents which we had transmitted for our emperor. The king of France observed on this occasion, that the wealth which we supplied from New Spain was alone sufficient to enable our sovereign to wage war against him, although Peru was not then discovered. It was also reported that the king of France sent a message to our emperor, saying, That as he and the king of Portugal had divided the world between them, he desired to see the will of our father Adam, to know if he had made them exclusively his heirs. In his next expedition, Florin was made prisoner by a strong squadron belonging to Biscay, and was hanged in the island of Teneriffe.

Avila was made a close prisoner in France, but by gaining the friendship of the officer to whose custody he had been confided, he was enabled to correspond with his friends in Spain, to whom he transmitted all the documents with which he had been entrusted, which were all laid before the emperor Don Carlos by Martin Cortes, our generals father, and Diego de Ordas, by means of the licentiate Nunez, relator of the royal council, who was cousin to Cortes. The emperor was pleased, on due consideration of these documents, to order that all favour should be shewn to our general, and that the proceedings respecting the government of New Spain should be suspended until his majesty returned into Spain.

We were much disappointed on receiving intelligence of the loss of our treasure, and the detention of our agent in France; yet Cortes honourably reserved the district of Guatitlan for Avila, notwithstanding his captivity, and gave it three years afterwards to a brother of Alonzo de Avila, who was then promoted to be contador of Yucutan.

After the settlement with Christoval de Tapia, the Captains Sandoval and Alvarado resumed the expeditions with which they had been before entrusted, and on this occasion I went along with Sandoval. On our arrival at Tustepeque68, I took my lodgings on the summit of a very high tower of a temple, for the sake of fresh air, and to avoid the musquitoes, which were very troublesome below. At this place, seventy-two of the soldiers who came with Narvaez and six Spanish women were put to death. The whole province submitted immediately to Sandoval, except the Mexican chief who had been the principal instrument of the destruction of our soldiers, who was soon afterwards made prisoner and burnt alive. Many others had been equally guilty, but this example of severity was deemed sufficient.

Sandoval, in the next place, sent a message to the Tzapotecas, who inhabit a mountainous district about ten leagues from Tustepeque or Tututepec, ordering them to submit to his authority; and on their refusal, an expedition was sent against them under Captain Briones, who according to his own account had served with reputation in the wars of Italy. His detachment consisted of 100 Spanish infantry, and about an equal number of Indian allies; but the enemy were prepared for him, and so completely surprised him in a difficult pass of the mountains, that they drove him and his men over the rocks, rolling them down to the bottom, by which above a third of them were wounded, of whom one afterwards died. The district inhabited by the Tzapotecas is of very difficult access among rocky mountains, where the troops can only pass in single file, and the climate is very moist and rainy. The inhabitants are armed with long lances, having stone heads about an ell long, which have two edges as sharp as razors, and they are defended by pliable shields which cover their whole bodies. They are extremely nimble, and give signals to each other by loud whistlings, which echo among the rocks with inconceivable shrillness. Their province is named Tiltepeque69; which, after its submission, was confided to the charge of a soldier named Ojeda. On his return to quarters, Sandoval ridiculed Briones on the bad success of his expedition, asking him if he had ever seen the like in Italy; for Briones was always boasting of his exploits there, as how he had severed men in two, and the like. Briones was sore displeased with these sarcasms, and swore he would rather fight against the Turks or Moors than the Tzapotecas. There was another district of the Tzapotecas called Xaltepec, which was then at war with a neighbouring tribe, and who immediately, on being summoned by Sandoval, sent a deputation of their chiefs to wait upon him with handsome presents; among which was a considerable quantity of gold, partly made into toys, and partly in ten little tubes. Their chiefs were dressed in long cotton robes, richly embroidered, and reaching to their feet, like the upper garments worn by the Moors. They requested to be assisted by some of our soldiers against their enemies, whom they named the Minxes. The state of our force at this time did not permit him to comply with this request, but he promised to transmit their request to our general at Mexico, with an application for an auxiliary force to be sent them, and said he could only now send a small number of his men along with them, to observe the nature of the passes, but his real object was to examine their mines. With this answer he dismissed them all except three, sending eight of us along with them to explore the country and its mines.

There was another soldier of the same name with myself in this party, for indeed there were three of us in the army named Castillo. At that time I prided myself on my dress, and was called Castillo the beau. My namesake who went on the present expedition was named Castillo the thoughtful, as he was of slow speech, never replying to a question for a long while, and then answering by some absurdity. The third was called Castillo the prompt, as he was always very ready and smart in all his words. On our arrival at the district of Xaltepec, the Indians turned over the soil in three different rivers, in each of which they found gold, and soon filled three tubes with it as large as a mans middle finger, with which we returned to Sandoval, who now thought that all our fortunes would be made. He took a district to himself, from which he very soon procured gold to the value of 15,000 crowns. He gave the district of Xaltepec, whence we had obtained the gold, to Captain Luis Marin, but it turned out very indifferently. He gave me a very profitable district, which I wish to God I had kept; it consisted of three places, named Matalan, Oztoequipa, and Oriaca, where the ingenio of the viceroy is now situated; but I thought it more consistent with my character as a soldier to accompany Sandoval in his military expeditions. Sandoval called his town Medellin, after the birth-place of Cortes; and the Rio de las Vanderas, from which he procured the 15,000 crowns, was for some time the port where the merchandise from Spain was discharged, until Vera Cruz became the emporium.