come with him, and if there were any who did not want to join, they were to go back to headquarters and receive the reward of cowards and deserters.
The vexation of the whole matter turned Olid into a fierce lion, and shortly after, when he met the enemy in the field, he led his men to a triumphant victory. The Mexican garrisons retreated and fortified themselves in another large town where there was another great body of warriors posted in a fort. To this place again Olid, and those who would follow him, marched and fell so furiously upon their foes that they routed them completely.
When this force of Olid's returned from the expedition, Cortes and the rest of us went out to meet them; and we had much laughter about the discontented having persuaded Cristobal de Olid to turn back. And Olid even laughed at it himself and said that some of his soldiers had thought more of their mines in Cuba than of their soldiers' arms; and he vowed that never again would he go on an expedition with any of the rich followers of Narvaez, but would take with him only a few of the poor soldiers of Cortes. In these days Sandoval also led an expedition against other towns where Spaniards had been attacked and made way with, and came back to where we lay at Tepeaca, bringing clothes, arms and two saddles which they had found in a temple offered before idols. His force also brought back
