Spanish Discovery 9
boats that brought them from the east. Kumours of tlir
coming to Cuba which Mont'uma had been hearing for., v-
eral years were at last confirmed. -
 In 1523 Cortes sent from Mexico`. -iko9Jr '- id with
6 ships, 400 Spaniards, and 30 horses to the distant coast of
Honduras for the purpose of joining that territory to the
Spanish monarchy. He had heard that Gil Gonzales de Avila
was making preparations in Hispaniola to conquer this ter-
ritory which was already known to pilots and rumoured
to be rich. But on his way Olid was seduced by Velasquez
the relentless enemy of Cortes, and after his arrival in Hon-
duras he emancipated himself from Cortes' authority. There-
upon Cortes dispatched Francisco de las Casas with two ves-
sels to punish Olid, but he was wrecked, and fell into the
hands of the bold rebel. These happenings so angered Cortes
that he decided to undertake an expedition overland to Hon-
duras. He left Mexico in October 1524, accompanied by his
able young lieutenant Gonzalo de Sandoval and followed
more or less the old commercial and military road used by
the Toltecs and Aztecs in their raids on the lowlands.
 His army suffered much from hunger and the marshy
nature of the country where the natives in numerous cases
burned their villages and fled. Because of the unfriendliness
of the area he could not get canoes to cross all the rivers. Then
he made that unique bridge of which he said that it had one
thousand tree trunks the smallest of which was about the
thickness of a man's body, to say nothing of smaller logs
which were beyond number, that it would take more than
ten years to destroy unless interfered with by men or burnt,
and that the natives came from far and wide to admire it. He
passed very near Palenque, where Mayas of the Chol branch
of the family live in this neighbourhood from ancient times.
 Up to the Usumacinta he found his way with the help of
charts which the inhabitants of Coatzacoalco had given him.
Beyond the Usumacinta he arrived in a region called Acalan
whose inhabitants carried on an uninterrupted commerce