Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/276

fathoms deep; so I had some lances tied together to examine the bottom and found that, besides the depth of the water, there were two fathoms of mud, so that in all there were six fathoms. Finally I determined to make a bridge over it and set about distributing the work to be done, and the wood to be cut, among the different people: the beams were to be from nine to ten fathoms in length according to the part which would remain above water. I charged the chiefs who had come with me to cut and bring a certain number of trees, each in proportion to the number of his people, and the Spaniards and I, on rafts and with that little bit of a canoe and two others which we afterwards found, began to lay the timbers. Everybody thought it was impossible to complete it, and, behind my back, some of them even said it would have been better to go the roundabout way before the people became too exhausted to be prevented afterwards from returning, for in the end this work would never be finished and we should be forced to go back. This murmuring spread to such an extent that they almost dared to utter it to me; and as I saw them so despondent, and in truth they had reason because of the character of the work we had undertaken, and because they were reduced to eating roots and herbs, I ordered them to take no part in building the bridge, for I would do it with the Indians. So I immediately sent for all the chiefs and told them to consider the great strait to which we were reduced, and that we were forced either to cross or to perish; hence I besought them earnestly to exhort their people to finish that bridge, for, once across, we would have immediately before us a large province, called Acalan, where there was abundance of provisions, and there we would rest; and that besides the provisions of the country they knew I had sent to have supplies brought from the ships, and that people would bring them in canoes, so that there we would have great abundance of everything.