From thence he proceeded to Zuzullin, and came at length to Nito; from whence he went to a bay on the coast, called St Andre, where, finding a good haven, he built a town called Natividad de nuestra Sennora.  He went thence to Truxillo, on the coast of Honduras, where he was well received by the Spanish settlers.  While here, a ship brought intelligence of an insurrection having broke out in Mexico during his absence; on which, he ordered Gonsalo de Sandoval to march with his company by land, from Naco to Mexico, by the ordinary and safest road of Quahutemallan, or Guatimala, towards the South Sea; and, leaving his cousin Ferdinando de Saavedra to command in Truxillo, he went himself by sea along the coast of Yucutan to Chalchicocca, now called St Juan de Ullhua, and thence to Medellin and Mexico, where he was well received.  Cortes was absent eighteen months on this expedition, during which he travelled 500 leagues[57], and suffered many hardships.

In the year 1525; Francis Pizarro, and Diego de Almagro, went from Panama to discover Peru, on the south of the fine, which they called Nueva Castillia.  Pedro Asias, governor of Panama, refused to take any concern in this expedition, on account of certain evil news which had been brought to him by Francis Vezerra.  Pizarro went first in a ship with 124 soldiers, and was followed by Almagro with seventy men in another ship.  Almagro came to Rio de San Juan, in lat. 3 deg.  N., where he got 3000 pezoes of gold; and not finding Pizarro, of whom he was in search, he lost heart, and returned to Panama.  Pizarro went first to the island of Gorgona, and thence to the isle of Gallo, from whence he proceeded to the river called Rio del Peru, in lat. 2 deg.  N. from which the rich and famous country of Peru derives its name.  He sailed thence to the river of St Francis, and Cape Passaos, where he passed the equinoctial line, and came to Puerto Vejo, in lat. 1 deg.  S. and sailed on to the rivers of Chinapanpa, Tumbez, and Payta, in four or five degrees of southern latitude, where he received intelligence concerning King Atabalipa, and of the vast riches of his palace.  On receiving this intelligence, Pizarro returned to Panama, from whence he went to Spain, where he solicited and obtained the government of the rich country he had discovered; having spent above three years in the discovery, with much labour and great danger[58].

In the same year, 1525, seven ships were fitted out from Spain, under the command of Garcia de Loaisa, for a voyage to the Molucca Islands.  Sailing from Corunna, and passing by the Canaries, they came to the coast of Brasil, where they discovered an island in lat. 2 deg.  S. which they named St Matthew; and, finding orange trees, hogs, and European poultry, they concluded it to be inhabited; but, by inscriptions oil the bark of trees, they learnt that the Portuguese had bean there seventeen years before.  A small pinnace of this squadron, commanded by Juan de Resaga, passed the straits of Magellan, and ran along the whole coast of Peru and New Spain, carrying the intelligence to Cortes of the expedition of Loaisa to the Moluccas:  But the admiral ship only of this squadron, commanded by Martin Mingues de Carchova, arrived at its destination, where the Moors of the Moluccas received the Spaniards hospitably; Loaisa and all the other captains died by the way.