Cortes himself also wrote a letter couched in those smooth terms he so very well knew how to employ, assuring Velasquez of the unabated friendship he entertained for him, and that he was going to set sail the very next day. CHAPTER XXV. _Cortes sets sail with the whole squadron for the island of Cozumel, and what further took place._ Cortes deferred the review of his troops until we should have arrived at the island of Cozumel, and gave orders for the embarking of our horses. Pedro de Alvarado, in the San Sebastian, which was a very fast sailer, was ordered to shape his course along the north coast, and his pilot received strict orders to steer direct for the cape of St. Antonio, where all the other vessels would meet and set sail for Cozumel: like instructions were forwarded to Diego de Ordas. Mass having been said, the nine remaining vessels set sail, in a southerly direction, on the 10th of February, 1519. There were sixty soldiers on board the San Sebastian, under Alvarado, among which number I was myself. Camacho, our pilot, took no notice of the orders he had received from Cortes, but shaped his course direct for Cozumel, so that we arrived two days earlier there than the rest. We landed our men in the same harbour I before mentioned in our expedition under Grijalva. Cortes had been detained on his passage by the breaking of the rudder of Francisco de Morla's vessel, which had to be replaced from what they had at hand. Our vessel, as I have stated above, arrived two days earlier at Cozumel than the rest, and the whole of the men proceeded on shore. We did not meet with a single Indian in the village of Cozumel, as all the inhabitants had fled away. Alvarado, therefore, ordered us to another village at about four miles distance from the latter. Here the inhabitants had likewise fled to the woods, without, however, being able to carry off all their property, so that we found numbers of fowls and other things; of the former, Alvarado would not permit us to take more than forty. Out of a temple near at hand we took several cotton mats, and a few small boxes containing a species of diadem, small idols, corals, with all manner of trinkets made of an inferior sort of gold. We also took two Indians and a female prisoners, after which we returned to the village near which we had landed.