HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

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reach the deserted town of Chanchanha, and to cross the head streams of
the great rivers and _aguadas_ which surround it, since in this
direction it was not possible for us to fail in finding it. We went
three days in this direction, and from thinking that, if we missed the
convent of Chanchanha, in this direction, there was afterwards no place
to have recourse to, on account of the great distance that we were from
a town on all sides, a great sadness came over my companion Padres, so
that they told me that we should change our direction, since, if we did
not, it was certain that we should perish in these forests, and that
the best thing was to try to strike the road which was being opened
from this Province to that of Guatemala, which runs from North to
South. To please them I yielded the opinion which I had determined on.
From there we took the direction to the West, although the distance in
leagues and forests which we intended to traverse was more than sixty
or seventy. This distance was a great one, for us to be able, breaking
through such bad thickets and suffering from hunger for thirteen days,
to come through alive, without exaggeration."