“This being the condition of affairs, we daily expected that hostilities would begin, and we were therefore the more vigilant. It happened one day, while I was standing sentinel on the sand-hills with another soldier, that we espied five Indians coming along the shore. Not to alarm the camp with so trifling a matter, we allowed them to advance. They all appeared very good-humored, made their obeisance to us after their fashion, and requested us, by signs, to conduct them to the camp. Thereupon I said to my companion: ‘I will take them there, while you remain where you are,’ for at that time my legs were not so infirm as they are now, in my old age. When I presented them to Cortes, they manifested the utmost reverence, and continually repeated the word _Lopelucio_, _Lopelucio_, which in the Totonac language means lord, great god. In dress and language these people differed entirely from the Mexicans whom Montezuma had sent to our camp. They had large holes bored in their under-lips, in which they wore pieces of a speckled, blue stone, or thin plates of gold. The holes in their ears were quite large, from which depended similar ornaments. Neither Aguilar nor Doña Marina understood their language. The latter asked them whether there were any _naëyavatos_ or interpreters with them. Thereupon two of them answered that they understood the Mexican language. Then the talking began. They bid us welcome, and said that their ruler had sent them to inquire who we were, and that he would be delighted to be of any use to such powerful men as we were. They said that they would have waited on us earlier, if they had not shunned the people of Culhua, namely, the Mexicans (meaning as much as villains), who had been with us. It is likely that these people had heard of our battles at Tabasco and Potonchan. They at least knew that the Mexicans had secretly departed from us three days before this time. Cortes learned many things from them which were of the greatest importance to him, particularly the information respecting the enemies and opponents of Montezuma. Cortes, therefore, was very friendly to these people. He gave them a number of presents, and desired them to return to their ruler and to tell him that he would in person shortly visit him.”