You have already heard me tell in the preceding chapter how Cortés had undertaken to go to a town named Cingapacinga, and take with him four hundred soldiers and fourteen horsemen and musketeers and crossbowmen, and we took good care to make certain soldiers of the party of Diego Velásquez go with us. When the officers went to warn them to get their arms ready, and those who had them to bring their horses, they answered haughtily that they did not want to go on any expedition but back to their farms and estates in Cuba; that they had already lost enough through Cortés having enticed them from their homes, and that he had promised them on the sand dunes that whosoever might wish to leave, that he would give them permission to do so and a ship and stores for the voyage; and for that reason there were now seven soldiers all ready to return to Cuba.