After this reproach, Ircio, with some of his friends and acquaintances, offered himself, and he actually marched out for this purpose. Marmolejo, a person of distinction, likewise went out with six men; so also Santacruz Burgales, with a like number. Each of these three small detachments went off in a different direction, and they wandered about for three days, but returned with the disheartening news, that wherever they came there was nothing but water to be seen. Cortes was ready to burst with vexation when they told him this, and he desired Sandoval to go and speak with me, and request me, in his name, to try if I could not discover some road, to rescue the army from its present perilous position. All this he said in an affectionate and begging tone of voice, as he very well knew that I was by no means in good health: and indeed I was suffering with a bad fever, for which reason I had refused to accompany my intimate friend Marmolejo, to whom I said: "You expect me to do everything; let others bestir themselves as well!" First I refused Sandoval also, but he came a second time to my hut, and begged very hard of me to comply with our general's request, who had said, that next to God he could only expect assistance from me at this juncture. Though I felt very ill, yet my honour would not allow me to refuse any longer, and I desired that Hernando de Aguilar and a certain Hinojosa might accompany me, both of whom were men I well knew could bear any fatigues. We three then set out from our camp, and followed the course of a rivulet to some considerable distance, until we came in view of a hill lying on the opposite side of the water, and on which we observed several branches of trees that had been stuck in the ground as if to serve for some signal. We now marched in this direction for upwards of an hour, and after finding our way out between the rivers, we came to some small huts, which had a short time previously been deserted by their owners. Continuing our course in this direction, we observed at some distance from us, on the slope of a hill, some maise plantations lying about an isolated dwelling, in which we distinctly heard the sound of human voices. As the sun was by this time nearly gone down, we concealed ourselves among the bushes until late in the night, when we thought the inmates of the house were all fast asleep. We then moved forward in the utmost silence up to this habitation, broke suddenly into it, and captured three Indians, an old woman, and two other young females, who were uncommonly pretty. We only found two fowls and a small quantity of maise, with which, and the whole of these Indians, we returned highly rejoiced to our encampment. Sandoval had kept a look out for us until late in the evening, and he was the first to observe us at a distance, on our return. He could scarcely contain himself for joy when he recognized us, and he hastened to inform Cortes, to whom no news