Tiltepeque[2]; which, after its submission, was confided to the charge of a soldier named Ojeda.  On his return to quarters, Sandoval ridiculed Briones on the bad success of his expedition, asking him if he had ever seen the like in Italy; for Briones was always boasting of his exploits there, as how he had severed men in two, and the like.  Briones was sore displeased with these sarcasms, and swore he would rather fight against the Turks or Moors than the Tzapotecas.  There was another district of the Tzapotecas called Xaltepec, which was then at war with a neighbouring tribe, and who immediately, on being summoned by Sandoval, sent a deputation of their chiefs to wait upon him with handsome presents; among which was a considerable quantity of gold, partly made into toys, and partly in ten little tubes.  Their chiefs were dressed in long cotton robes, richly embroidered, and reaching to their feet, like the upper garments worn by the Moors.  They requested to be assisted by some of our soldiers against their enemies, whom they named the Minxes.  The state of our force at this time did not permit him to comply with this request, but he promised to transmit their request to our general at Mexico, with an application for an auxiliary force to be sent them, and said he could only now send a small number of his men along with them, to observe the nature of the passes, but his real object was to examine their mines.  With this answer he dismissed them all except three, sending eight of us along with them to explore the country and its mines.

There was another soldier of the same name with myself in this party, for indeed there were three of us in the army named Castillo.  At that time I prided myself on my dress, and was called Castillo the beau.  My namesake who went on the present expedition was named Castillo the thoughtful, as he was of slow speech, never replying to a question for a long while, and then answering by some absurdity.  The third was called Castillo the prompt, as he was always very ready and smart in all his words.  On our arrival at the district of Xaltepec, the Indians turned over the soil in three different rivers, in each of which they found gold, and soon filled three tubes with it as large as a mans middle finger, with which we returned to Sandoval, who now thought that all our fortunes would be made.  He took a district to himself, from which he very soon procured gold to the value of 15,000 crowns.  He gave the district of Xaltepec, whence we had obtained the gold, to Captain Luis Marin, but it turned out very indifferently.  He gave me a very profitable district, which I wish to God I had kept; it consisted of three places, named Matalan, Oztoequipa, and Oriaca, where the ingenio of the viceroy is now situated; but I thought it more consistent with my character as a soldier to accompany Sandoval in his military expeditions.  Sandoval called his town Medellin, after the birth-place of Cortes; and the Rio de las Vanderas, from which he procured the 15,000 crowns, was for some time the port where the merchandise from Spain was discharged, until Vera Cruz became the emporium.