When the caziques and the governor saw our general on shore, who, they had been given to understand, was our chief officer, they paid him in their way the greatest possible respect, and perfumed him most vehemently. We thanked them kindly, and in return made many protestations of friendship, also presenting each with white and green glass beads, desiring them at the same time to bring us gold in exchange for our commodities. Motecusuma's governor strongly advised the Indians to comply with our request; the consequence of which was that the inhabitants of the surrounding districts soon brought us every trinket they possessed in the shape of gold, and commenced a trade of barter with us. During the six days we stayed in this spot we obtained upwards of 1500 pesos' worth of gold trinkets, of various workmanship, but of inferior quality. The historians Francisco Lopez de Gomara and Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo have also mentioned this circumstance in their works. They err, however, when they say it took place in the Tabasco or Grijalva river; for it is a well-authenticated fact that there is no gold found in the provinces which border on the river Grijalva, and, upon the whole, very few ornaments of gold. I will not, however, detain my reader with their account, but rather inform him that we took possession of this country for his imperial majesty the Emperor, in the name of Diego Velasquez, the governor of Cuba. This being done, our general told the Indians that he was now desirous of re-embarking, and presented them with some Spanish shirts. We took one of the Indians with us, who subsequently learnt our language and was converted to Christianity, when he took the name of Francisco. I met with him afterwards at Santa Fé, where he had settled himself after the conquest of Mexico. Our commander, finding that the inhabitants brought no more gold, and considering that we had already been here six days, and that our present anchorage was rather dangerous on account of the contrary winds, gave orders for re-embarking. Pursuing our voyage, we came to an island which was quite covered with white sand, lying above nine miles from the main land. We gave it the name of Isla Blanca, as it stands on the sea charts. Not far from this lay another island, nearly five miles from the main land, which offered us a very commodious landing-place.