went in person to Honduras. He tells us that the vanguard of the Spaniards, after capturing ten Indian men and two Indian women, who were treated kindly, sent one of their canoes to the island of Tayasal with six Indians and two Spaniards, who were to give Canek some small Castilian presents. As a result of this, when the main body of the army, under Cortes himself, reached the shore of the lake, Canek and several of his chiefs were waiting for them. The rest of the account of Cogolludo is the same as that of Villagutierre.
In his Fifth Letter, Cortes furnishes some interesting details with which we will complete our account of the first entrada into the Itza territory. He tells us (The Letters of Cortes to Charles V, MacNutt's translation, vol. ii, p. 259) that Apospolon, Lord of Izancanac, first pretended to be dead, being in fear of Cortes, but that later he took the Spaniards to Izancanac, which was "quite large, and has many mosques." This Apospolon was a sort of merchant prince and had widespread trading connections. At Nito, where Cortes met Gil Gonzalez de Avila, a whole quarter "was peopled with his agents under command of one of his brothers." The articles of trade were, of course, only such things as cocoa, mantles, red shells, and dyes. As the people of Izancanac were near neighbors of the Itzas, and as the latter lay between them and Nito, it seems as if it must have been almost inevitable that the two tribes, the subjects of Apospolon and those of Canek, should have had much in common.
When Cortes left Izancanac he passed through the fortified village, the name of which no one mentions, and later came to that of Tiac, which was still larger and very well built. From the province of Mazatlan (in which was Tiac) to that of Taiza (Itza) was a matter of four nights. At length he reached the lake, which he thought to be an arm of the sea, and from the shore he saw Tayasal. He found that his scouts had captured an Indian, who gave valuable information. From this point the account of Cortes agrees absolutely with that of Villagutierre, even to the number of the crossbowmen (twelve) whom Cortes took with him.
Now that we have compared all the important accounts of
