CHAP. CXXXIV. How Cortes despatches Sandoval with 200 men, among which were twenty horse and twelve crossbow-men, to punish the tribes of Xalatzinco and Zacatemi, for having put some Spaniards to death, and to demand restitution of the gold they had robbed us of; and also further to explore the country 375 CHAP. CXXXV. How all the slaves we had taken in Tepeaca, Quauhquechola, Tecalco, and Castilblanco, were brought together in our head-quarters, and branded with an iron, in his majesty's name 379 CHAP. CXXXVI. How the chief officers and principal personages of Narvaez's troops request leave to return to Cuba, which Cortes grants, and they accordingly leave; also how our general sends ambassadors to Spain, St. Domingo, and Jamaica 381 NOTES 387 [Transcriber's Notes: The errata below have been corrected in the text. Footnote 24 has also been moved to its correct position in the text.] ERRATA. P. 17, _l._ 3, _for_ Fronseca, _read_ Fonseca. 17, 24, _for_ dubbloons, _read_ doubloons. 20, 18, _for_ Chaopa, _read_ Chiapa. 20, 26, _for_ Mautanzas, _read_ Matanza. 31, 8, _for_ this, _read_ their. 31, 28, _for_ surrounded, _read_ surmounted. 51, 17, _for_ his, _read_ its P. 53, _l._ 19, _read_ whom the king Quauhtemoctzin took. 126, 2, _for_ which, _read_ whom. 230, 22, _for_ were, _read_ was. 355, 9, _for_ when, _read_ where. 365, 33, _for_ were the townships, _read_ was the township. CONQUEST OF MEXICO AND NEW SPAIN. CHAPTER I. _The time of my departure from Castile, and what further happened to me._ In the year 1514 I departed from Castile in the suite of Pedro Arias de Avila, who had just then been appointed governor of Terra Firma. At sea we had sometimes bad and sometimes good weather, until we arrived at Nombre Dios, where the plague was raging: of this we lost many of our men, and most of us got terrible sores on our legs, and were otherwise ill. Soon after our arrival, dissensions arose between the governor and a certain wealthy cavalier, named Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, who had brought this province to subjection, and was married to one of the daughters of Avila. As, however, suspicion had been excited against him, owing to a plan he had formed of making a voyage to the South Sea at his own expense, for which he required a considerable body of troops, his own father-in-law deposed him and afterwards sentenced him to decapitation.