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Our Cat!tolic Heritage in Texas
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any of his men would set foot on shore. The commander, it should be remembered, had no royal patent, as the expedition had been undertaken merely with the approval of the priors of the Order of Saint Jerome. "Believing they had done some evil in the land, wherefore they were afraid to appear before me," declares Cortes, "I secretly took a position on the coast after it was night, opposite to where the ships were anchored out at sea." He had previously taken the three men prisoners. 19 All that night, and until noon the next day, Cortes waited in ambush to capture any man who might be sent ashore in the hope of finding out more about the details of the expedition, where it had been and what places it had visited . 20 The long vigil becoming irksome, he resorted to a ruse. He made the notary public and his companions exchange clothes with his soldiers. These substitutes he directed down the beach to signal to the ships to send a boat ashore to carry them back. Shortly after those on board noticed the signal, a boat was lowered with twelve men. Those on the beach retired a short distance, as if to stand in the shade of some trees nearby, in order that their companions from the ships might not recognize them. As soon as the boat reached the shore, four men walked out, two with crossbows and two with guns. As they made their way to where their supposed companions stood, they were quickly sur- rounded and taken captive. The others who had remained in the boat put out to the ships in all haste. By the time they reached the nearest vessel, all the sails had been spread and the anchor weighed. From the prisoners taken by this clever strategy, Cortes learned how the expedition had stopped at a river which was thirty leagues to the north of Almeria, which was itself twelve leagues to the north of Veracruz. Here they had been welcomed by the natives and had been plentifully supplied with provisions. Gold in some quantity had been found among the Indians. In exchange for their stock of trinkets and beads the Spaniards had secured as much as three thousand pesos in gold. They explained that they had not landed, but that from the ships they had observed a number of towns along the river banks. The houses were not of stone. They seemed to be made of straw and adobe. Some of them had two stories. 21 Pineda and his men seemed disappointed, however, 19 Diaz del Castillo, who was an eyewitness, says there were four men but he gives the names of only three of them. HiJtoria Verdadera, I, 1 69. 20 Tbe chief source for the account given of this incident is Cortes Carta of Octo• ber 30, I 520, previously cited. 21/ bid., I, 4.
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