10 The Beginning of British Honduras
and canoe service with Tabasco and Xcalango. In boats which
the Acaltec merchant king placed at his disposal he crossed
the Usumacinta, flowing through marshy land and vast wild-
erness in which the Maya inhabitants were far more numer-
ous than to-day. This is a region of tropical luxurious-
ness and wild beauty. Here, in Acalan, Cortes received pre-
cise information about the Spaniards of Gil Gonzales de Avila
who had settled on the Golfo Dulce. On a piece of cloth the
Indians painted for him all the rivers, lakes, and swamps he
would have to cross on this overland journey to the Golfo
Dulce. Then there was still a noble independence about
these Indian chiefs as they spoke to Cortes as man to man,
extended their hospitality, and reminded him that some inha-
bitants were still hiding in the forests and hills because his
countrymen had burned many places when visiting the coun-
try on an earlier occasion. They also told him of some Span-
iards who were causing the same trouble near the Bay of
Ascension on the other side of the Yucatan coast, had killed
certain natives, and severely injured merchants and traders.
 After enduring great hardships and privations Cortes ar-
rived with his little army at the west end of the beautiful lake
of Holtuna or Peten-Itza, where he camped and sent messen-
gers to the Canek in the island city of Tayasal, two and a half
leagues distant, inviting him to an interview. Next day the
Canek came in canoes with a small retinue to Cortes' camp
where he was received with great distinction, and mass was
said. By order of Cortes the region between the Lake of
Peten and the Golfo Dulce was traversed in various directions
as he marched onward, by both Spaniards and his Indian
auxiliaries, but only a few human beings were found, al-
though these regions had up to this time been well-peopled
in parts. This wilderness west of British Honduras was once
a great highway of migratory nations which in the course of
a thousand years moved back and forth between Palenque
and Copan. This extensive region of endlessly concealing
forests through which the Rio de la Pasion and Rio Cancuen