THE FOURTH LETTER

Sent by Hernando Cortés, Governor and Captain-General of New Spain to the Emperor, Don Carlos.

Most Lofty Powerful and Excellent Prince, very Catholic and Invincible Emperor, My Lord and King:

At the time when the city of Tenochtitlan and surrounding country were recovered for your Majesty two other provinces became subject to the imperial crown, lying forty leagues to the north on the borders of the province of Pánuco, by name Tuxtepec and Metztitlan. Their country is strongly defended and they are well used to arms, as is shown by the past history of this tribe in conflict with their enemies, by whom they are almost entirely surrounded. As nothing now hindered your Majesty’s cause they sent me messengers offering to become your Majesty’s vassals, in which capacity I received them in your Majesty’s royal name, and so they remained until the arrival of Cristóbal de Tapia. In the turmoil and distrust which he sowed among these people, however, they not only ceased to pay that obedience as of old but even assaulted neighbouring tribes who were vassals of your Majesty, burning many towns and killing many people. At that time of crisis I had few troops to spare for they were much divided, but considering that to make no move in this matter would be highly dangerous, since the neighbouring tribes might for very fear of further damage join with the rebels, I sent an officer with thirty horse and a hundred foot, including bowmen and musketeers, and a large number of our allies thither; they had several encounters with the enemy in which a certain number of our Indian allies and also two Spaniards lost their lives. But it pleased God that they should ask for peace of their own accord, and I accordingly pardoned their chiefs who came to speak with me of it, in that they had come of their own free will without being taken in battle. Later, when I was in Pánuco, a rumour was spread in those parts that I had gone back to Spain, which caused no small commotion. Tuxtepec rebelled again, and the ruler of the province marched down with a large following and burnt more than twenty townships belonging to our allies, killing and capturing many of them.

Accordingly on my way back from Pánuco I turned aside to subdue them: and although on first entering the province several of our allies who remained too far in the rear were killed, and ten or a dozen horses died as the result of hardships endured in crossing the mountains, yet the whole province was finally conquered, and its ruler, his son, and a leading border chief, taken prisoner. The ruler and the chief were subsequently hanged, and all those who had taken part in the war enslaved, to the number of some two hundred persons. They were branded and sold in the public auction, the remainder, after the royal fifth had been set aside, being divided among those who had taken part in the fighting. The sum did not suffice, however, to pay for the thirty horses which had been lost, for the land being barren there was no other booty. The province has since been at peace, with the brother of the dead ruler now on the throne. Up to the present, however, it has been of neither service nor profit, the land being so barren, as I have said; nevertheless our allies are safe from being disturbed and for greater security I have even settled some natives of this province there.

At this time a small brig arrived at the harbour and town of Espíritu Santo (which I have already mentioned) bound from Cuba and bearing one Juan Bono de Quejo, who had commanded one of the ships which Pánfilo de Narváez brought with him. According to the dispatches which he bore he came on behalf of Don Juan de Fonseca, Bishop of Burgos,²⁰ evidently thinking that Cristóbal de Tapia who had been sent by the Bishop to take over the governorship of this land was still here.

He sent him to Cuba to report to Diego Velásquez, which he did, and the latter provided him with a ship in which to sail hither. This Juan Bono carried with him as many as a hundred letters²¹ all in the same strain, signed by the Bishop, which he was to give to such persons as seemed to him good, declaring to them that by receiving Tapia as Governor they would be doing great service to your Majesty and on that account he promised them very substantial favours to come; they should know that they had taken service in my company against the wishes of your Majesty, and many like passages sufficiently calculated to stir up strife. He sent me a separate letter in the same terms, telling me that if I would be obedient to the aforesaid Tapia he would procure very special favours for me from your Majesty, but that if I refused I might regard him as my mortal enemy. The arrival of this Juan Bono and the letters affected the men of my company so much that I can assure your Majesty that I was hard put to it to pacify them, telling them the reason of the Bishop writing such a letter, and bidding them disregard his threats, for the greatest service they could do your Majesty and that from which they might hope to reap most reward, was to prevent the Bishop or any of his creatures from interfering in these parts, since it was his intention to conceal the true extent and nature of them from your Majesty and request grants of land in reward, without your Majesty knowing what he was thus bestowing. In particular I was informed, though I feigned to be ignorant of it at the time, that it had been suggested by several, since the only reward of their services were continual suspicions, that it would be well to set up a local municipal government (a comunidad) as was done recently in Castile, until such time as your Majesty should be informed of the true state of affairs; for the Bishop wielded such power in this matter that he prevented their letters from reaching your Majesty (having, as in very truth he had, the officials of the Indies house in Seville under his thumb, in which place messengers sent by the settlers were ill-treated, their reports, letters and money taken away from them and reinforcements of men, arms or provisions thus prevented from ever setting sail). On my acquainting them of all this, however, which as I told them your Majesty was ignorant of (for they could be very sure their services when made known to your Majesty would be amply repaid as befits good and loyal vassals who have truly served their lord as these have done), they were reassured, and according to the use which your Majesty graciously bade me make of the royal provisions, they have been and remain contented and serve with a good will, to which the fruit of their services may testify. And on that account they do deserve that your Majesty should grant them certain favours which for my part I humbly beg your Majesty to do, since I shall be no less grateful for favours vouchsafed to anyone of them than if they had been vouchsafed to me in person, since without them I could not have served your Majesty as I have done. In particular I beg your Majesty very humbly to write to them, acquainting them that your Majesty recognizes the toils they have undergone in your Majesty’s service and offering certain rewards; for in addition to discharging a debt your Majesty will hearten them so that henceforth they will serve him with still greater will.

(Natives had come from the province of Pánuco in the north to request Cortés’s help against their enemies. They admitted having killed two parties of white men, one commanded by a Lieutenant of Francisco de Garay, but excused themselves by saying that they had done it because they knew that these men were not of Cortés’s company, and they had been ill-treated by them. They feared, however, that other white men would return. Cortés had no men to spare at the time, but promised to do what he could as soon as possible. A few days later the natives were back again urging that since Cortés was settling various parts of the country he should send Spaniards to settle in their land. Upon this, and knowing moreover that there was a good harbour on the Pánuco river, Cortés ordered one of his officers to set out north. Cortés then proceeds:)

At the very moment of his departure, however, I learned from the boat newly arrived from Cuba, that the Admiral Diego Colón, and the Governors, Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Garay, were planning to land at Pánuco as my enemies to do me all the harm that they could; and in order that their evil intent might not have effect and to prevent any such disturbance as followed the arrival of Narváez I determined to leave the best guard I could in this city of Tenochtitlan and go north in person, so that if all or any of them should land I should be the first one they would meet and thus be better able to avoid all damage. I left accordingly with 120 horse, 300 foot, and some artillery, and as many as 40,000 native warriors from this city and the neighbourhood. On coming to the confines of their land some good five and twenty leagues before the port, at a large town known as Coscatlan, a great multitude came out against me and we fought together. But since my Indian allies were as numerous as our opponents and the ground was flat and well suited for the horses, the battle lasted not long; and while they killed a few horses and a few Spaniards together with some number of our allies, yet they were in worse case for a very great number of them were routed and slain. I remained in the town some two or three days both to look to the wounded and to receive those natives of Pánuco who had already visited me offering to become vassals of your Majesty. They accompanied me from that place to the port, from that time forward serving us in every way they could. I was several days on the road, but had no encounters with the natives. On the contrary those through whose villages we passed came out to ask pardon for their fault and offer themselves in your Majesty’s royal service. On arriving at the port and river of Pánuco I camped in a town five leagues from the sea by the name of Chila which was deserted and burnt, for it was there that they had repulsed the captain and men sent by Francisco de Garay. From there I sent messengers to the other side of the river and through the various lakes which were all fringed with large towns bidding them have no fear for what had been done in the past, for I intended to do them no hurt, knowing well that they had risen against the white people on account of the evil treatment they had received and were therefore not to blame. In spite of this they steadily refused to come to me and even maltreated my messengers, killing one or two of them. Moreover, since the water on the other side of the river was sweet we took our supplies from there, and they concealing themselves leapt out and attacked our men who had gone to fetch it. I remained thus for fifteen days thinking to bring them over to us by peaceful means, since when they saw how well those who had surrendered were received by us, I thought they would come in likewise; but they had such confidence in the strength of the lakes on which their towns were built that they would not submit. Seeing that fair deeds were of no avail I began to seek another remedy, and adding a considerable number of canoes to those we had there already, I set about ferrying a certain number of horses and men one night across the river. When dawn came a considerable force of men and horses had reached the other side without being seen and I then crossed over myself, leaving strict guard in my camp. As soon as they perceived us a large number of the enemy attacked with such fury as I have not seen equalled in the open field during all the time that I have been in these parts. They killed two of our horses and wounded ten more so badly that they could not go on. That day, however, by the help of God they were routed and pursued nearly a league, suffering heavy casualties. With about thirty horses and a hundred foot I advanced steadily and slept that night in a town three leagues from the camp. The town was deserted and in the temples we found many articles belonging to the Spaniards of Francisco de Garay’s party who had been killed. Next day I continued along the shore of the lake seeking for some neck of land that should enable us to get to the other side where townships and natives were to be seen, but the whole day passed without our coming to the end of the lake or any place where we could cross. At dusk we came in sight of a very fine town towards which we directed our steps, still marching along the shore of the lake. It was late when we approached and still there was no sign of the enemy. For greater safety I ordered ten horsemen to enter the town by the main road and I with ten more skirted round it towards the lake; the remaining ten acting as rearguard had not yet come up. As soon as we entered the town we discovered a vast quantity of people hiding in ambush behind the houses intending to take us unawares. They fought so furiously that they killed one horse, wounded almost all the rest, and many Spaniards. They displayed such tenacity that the fight went on for a long time, and although three or four times broken by our charges yet they re-formed for the attack. Drawing up in a circle they knelt with one knee on the ground and awaited us in this manner without a word or cry such as they are wont to utter: not once did we get amongst them without receiving a plentiful flight of arrows, so many indeed that had we not been well armed they had taken no small stock of us and I believe not one of us had escaped alive. It pleased God, however, that a few of the enemy who were close to the river flowing nearby (and which emptied itself into the lake which we had been skirting all day), should begin leaping into the water, upon which others began to fly to the same river, and in this way their ranks were broken, although once they had crossed the river they ceased to flee. We thus remained ourselves on the one side and they on the other until nightfall, for the river was so deep that we could not cross over to them; yet indeed we were not sorry to see them pass over. In this fashion we returned to the town, which would be about a sling’s throw from the river, and there passed the night with the best guard we could; the horses that they had killed served us for supper, for we had no other food. On the morrow we took the road again, there now being no sound of our late opponents, and came upon three or four towns, deserted alike of people and provisions, save for certain stores of wine such as they are wont to make which was contained in a considerable number of earthen jars. We passed the whole of that day without falling in with any of the enemy and slept the night following in the open, for we came upon some maize fields where both men and horses broke their fast. In this manner I marched on for two or three days, seeing no one, although coming across numerous towns. We were finally so much in need of provisions, for during this time there were not more than fifty pounds of bread between the lot of us, that we returned to camp, to find the men I had left there in very good fettle, having had no encounter with the enemy. Forthwith, concluding that all the natives were keeping to the other side of the river where I had been unable to pass, I conveyed men and horses rapidly across one night in canoes, and ordered musketeers and cross-bowmen to proceed up the lake by water while the others took their way by land. In this order they attacked a large town where the inhabitants were surprised and many killed. This success so terrified the natives, who perceived that although surrounded by water they had yet been caught unprepared, that they began at once to come in to us asking for peace. About four weeks later the inhabitants of the whole province had submitted and offered themselves as vassals to your Majesty.

Now that the land was at peace I sent persons to visit every part of it and bring back news of its towns and people. This ascertained, I sought out the best position I could and founded a town there, to which I gave the name Santisteban del Puerto. I appointed certain native townships in your Majesty’s name and provided for such of my men as were willing to settle there. Alcaldes and regidores were elected; I left my lieutenant governor in charge, and there remained with him some thirty horsemen and about a hundred foot. I left them also a ship and a small rowing boat, which had come from Vera Cruz with stores. At the same time one of my servants sent me from the same port a ship laden with meat, bread, wine, oil, vinegar and other provisions, which struck on a small island some five leagues from land and was lost entirely. Three of the crew managed to reach the island, and when later I could send a boat to them they were still alive, having fed on seals which they found in great quantities and a fruit which they said was not unlike our Spanish fig.

I can assure your Majesty that this expedition cost me personally over thirty thousand pesos of gold, as your Majesty may be pleased to see from an examination of the accounts: and those that went with me were forced to spend money on horses, stores, arms and harness, which were at the time worth their weight in gold or twice their weight in silver. Yet that your Majesty might be served in that venture not one of us but would have eagerly spent both that and more. For in addition to bringing the Indians under your Majesty’s imperial yoke the expedition accomplished more. Not long afterwards a ship carrying many men and an abundance of provisions was forced to make for that coast, and had the land not been at peace not a single one would have escaped, but would have been killed like those of the former party, the skins of whose faces we found spread and dried like masks in the Indian temples and so preserved that many of them could be recognized. Again, when Francisco de Garay came to this land, as I shall describe to your Majesty, it happened that they touched land some thirty leagues this side of Pánuco river, and after losing several of their boats finally landed in great disorder; it was therefore fortunate that they found the natives at peace, for had they found them at war all the newcomers would have lost their lives: actually the Indians did them good service carrying them in litters until they had reached the town settled by the Spaniards. The pacification of the land thus brought very real benefits.

(An officer in command of about one hundred Spaniards, horse and foot, was now sent south to conquer the province of Impilcingo. This was accomplished with partial success, the ruggedness of the country preventing a complete subjection on the part of the Spaniards. He then proceeded to the town of Zacatula, and with additional reinforcements marched eastwards to the province of Colimán, a journey of some seventy leagues. After one stiff encounter the province as a whole submitted, together with various neighbouring tribes. A town, named Colimán, was founded, and news of the harbour sent back to Cortés. News was also sent of an island which, so they reported, was entirely inhabited by women.)

At certain times men come over from the mainland with whom the women have intercourse; and those who become pregnant if they bear female children are kept, but if men children they are cast forth from their company. The Island, they say, is ten days’ journey from this province and many have been and seen it. They report, moreover, that it is very rich in pearls and gold; of all of which I shall endeavour to learn the truth and give a full account of it to your Majesty.

(Cortés was about to dispatch two expeditions commanded by Pedro de Albarado and Cristóbal de Olid to Guatemala and Honduras respectively when, at the very moment of departure, a messenger arrived from Santisteban del Puerto, a town recently settled on the Pánuco. Cortés then continues:)

By this messenger the alcalde informed me that Francisco de Garay (the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica) had arrived in the Pánuco River with 120 horse, 400 foot and many guns, calling himself the governor of that land, as he ordered to be proclaimed by the native herald. He declared he would avenge the wrongs which they had suffered at my hands in the late fighting, and bade them join him in expelling those Spaniards whom I had left there and any others that I should send, in all of which he would help them, and other such-like matters of scandal. The natives had been not a little disturbed by these words. As further proof of my suspicion that he was plotting in concert with the Admiral and Diego de Velázquez, within a few days a ship arrived from Cuba bearing certain dependents and friends of Velázquez and a servant of the Bishop of Burgos who (they said) had already been made imperial overseer (factor) of Yucatán, and thus made up almost the entire company. On hearing this news, although at the time I was lying in bed with one arm useless by reason of a fall from a horse, I determined to go there in person in order to prevent disturbance, and immediately dispatched Pedro de Albarado to go on ahead with all the men who were to have accompanied him on his expedition. I myself would follow in two days’ time. We were already on the road, I still on my bed, and had gone some ten leagues from this city to the place where we were to sleep, when close on midnight a messenger arrived from Vera Cruz bringing me letters from the ship newly come from Spain. Among them was a decree signed with your Majesty’s royal name, ordering Francisco de Garay not to land on the Pánuco nor to attempt to interfere with any part which I had already settled, for your Majesty was well pleased that I should hold it in his royal name: for which decree I most humbly and gratefully thank your Majesty. On receiving it I halted immediately. This was not a little advantageous to my health for I had not slept for two months, and was utterly worn out, so that had I gone on at that time I had been near to losing my life. But all such considerations I put aside, holding it better to die on that venture than by preserving my life give cause to such scandalous disturbances and murders as were then notorious. I further dispatched Diego de Ocampo, alcalde mayor, with the royal decree, to overtake Albarado, and gave him a letter bidding Albarado on no account to advance too near Garay’s men for fear of disturbances. I ordered the alcalde mayor himself to inform Garay of the terms of the decree and to bring me back his reply without delay. De Ocampo accordingly went on as fast as he could and arrived in the province of the Huastecos where he learned that Albarado had been there before him. He was further informed that Albarado had had news of a certain captain of Garay’s named Gonzalo Dovalle who was riding through the towns of that province with twenty-two other horsemen pillaging and stirring up the natives: he even went so far as to place outposts on the road which Albarado would have to take. At this (it was reported) Albarado was very wrath, thinking that Dovalle wished to do him harm, and immediately gathering all his men together marched on the town of Las Lajas where he found Dovalle encamped with all his men. On coming up he succeeded in getting speech with Dovalle and told him that he had learnt of his behaviour, at which, he said, he wondered greatly; for it was not the intention of the Governor or his officers (nor had it ever been) to attack them or do them any harm: on the contrary, he had ordered that they should be well received and provided with everything they lacked; and since the matter stood thus, he begged him, until such time as they could be certain that there would be no scandal or disturbance between the two parties, that he would consent to his men laying down their arms until the affair should be settled. Dovalle disclaimed all guilt saying that the facts were not as he had been informed, but that he was willing to do what he asked. The two parties accordingly joined in eating and making merry together, both the captains and all their men, without any bitterness or rancour between them. Immediately the alcalde mayor heard of this he ordered one of my secretaries who was with him, Francisco de Orduña by name, to make his way to the two captains, with authority to restore both arms and horses to Dovalle’s men, giving them to know that I desired to treat them well and help them in whatever they might lack, providing they ceased to stir up the country. He also sent a separate messenger to Albarado bidding him treat them with all civility and see that none of their belongings was touched nor themselves annoyed in any way: the which he did.

During this time, most powerful Lord, Garay’s ships were lying at the mouth of the river Pánuco, as if ready to attack the inhabitants of Santisteban, a town I had founded some three leagues up the river, and where all the ships arriving at that port usually anchored. Accordingly Pedro de Vallejo, my lieutenant in the aforesaid town, in order to prevent the danger which he anticipated from a rising on the part of the crews, issued certain orders to their commanders requiring them to sail up to the port and there anchor in peace; by this means the land would receive neither disturbance nor hurt. And moreover if they possessed any licence from your Majesty to enter or settle the land, or of any other nature, he required them to produce it, promising that once produced, it should be faithfully carried out according to the exact terms of the licence. To this the commanders replied in vague words, whose effect was that they refused to obey anything that my lieutenant ordered them. On this the lieutenant issued a second edict of the same nature attaching certain penalties to its non-compliance; to this they made the same reply. Matters remained in this condition for over two months until the commanders of the ships perceived that their long stay in the mouth of the river was causing disturbances not only among the Spanish residents of the town, but also among the natives of the province; upon this two of their number, a certain Castromocho and Martin de San Juan, sent messengers secretly to the lieutenant, declaring that they were desirous of peace and were ready to obey the law of the land: they begged him to come aboard their ships when they would receive him and carry out all his orders, adding that they had prepared the way for the other ships likewise to surrender peaceably and carry out his commands. The lieutenant accordingly decided to visit the ships accompanied by no more than five followers and was received well by the aforesaid captains. Further he sent to the commanding officer, Juan de Grijalba, who was at that time on board the flag ship, requesting him to fulfil the orders and requirements which he had already communicated to him. The commander not only refused to obey but commanded the other ships to join him and when they had all come up gave orders to their various captains to fire on the two ships which had surrendered and send them to the bottom. As soon as this order was made public to all present, the lieutenant in his own defence ordered guns on board the two ships to be got ready. Meanwhile the commanders of the other ships showed themselves unwilling to carry out Grijalba’s order, and Grijalba himself sent a notary, Vincente Lopez by name, to speak with the lieutenant. He gave his message, and the lieutenant replied justifying his orders and declaring plainly that his intervention was solely in the cause of peace and to avoid such scandals as were inevitable if the ships refused to come up-stream to the usual landing-place and remained in their present suspicious place like pirates ready to make a sudden landing on your Majesty’s domains: all of which gave a very bad impression. He brought forward other arguments with such effect that the notary carried back his reply to Grijalba and succeeded in persuading the commander to obey, since the lieutenant was plainly acting as your Majesty’s justiciary in that province, and Grijalba was well aware that up till then neither he nor Francisco de Garay had presented any royal licences such as the lieutenant and inhabitants of Santisteban would be bound to observe, and that his lying there with his ships like so many pirates off your Majesty’s coast was an ugly business. Moved by these considerations Grijalba and the other captains offered to obey the lieutenant and came up-stream to the usual landing-place. As soon as they had come into harbour, for the disobedience shown to the lieutenant’s orders, Juan de Grijalba was ordered to be arrested. But on news of this reaching Diego de Ocampo, my alcalde mayor, he immediately gave orders that Grijalba was to be set free on the morrow and treated with all respect, as were all his companions, none of their property to be interfered with: the which accordingly was done.

De Ocampo likewise wrote to Francisco de Garay, who lay in another port some ten to twelve leagues away, informing him that I could not come to him in person, but that I sent him with my full authority to decide as to what was to be done, examine mutually each other’s royal licences and determine in what way your Majesty could best be served. As soon as Garay received this letter he marched to where the alcalde was, and was very cordially received, both he and his men being supplied with everything they needed. There, after conversation and examination of the royal warrant which your Majesty graciously sent me, Garay at the instance of the alcalde acknowledged it, and declared himself ready to fulfil it, to which end he was desirous of re-embarking with his men and departing to settle in another part of the land outside that disposed of by your Majesty’s warrant. I was eager to serve him and ordered the alcalde to assist him in rallying his men, for many who had accompanied him wished to remain in these parts, and others had deserted; likewise the alcalde was to provide him with stores which he lacked both for his ships and crew. De Ocampo forthwith set to work to provide all that he asked, and it was immediately published in the town of Santisteban where the majority of my men and Garay’s now were, that all who had come in Garay’s fleet should join him, under pain of losing his arms and horses if he were a gentleman, and of a hundred lashes if a foot soldier in the ranks: in either case the offender was to be handed over to Garay as a prisoner.

Some of these men had sold their arms and horses both in the town and port of Santisteban and in various parts of the district, and Garay requested that they might be restored, since without them they would be useless. The alcalde made extensive enquiries to find out where such arms and horses might be, and ordered all which had been bought in this way to be restored to Garay. Likewise, the alcalde had guards placed on all the roads to arrest any who attempted to flee and bring them in as prisoners: many were captured in this way. The same declaration was made in the town part of Santisteban and both men and horses were brought to Garay. All this was carried out with much diligence. Garay went down to the harbour to embark, the alcalde remaining some six or seven days to see that all was carried out as I had ordered: and as there was a shortage of provisions he wrote to Garay asking him in what way he could command him, for he himself was returning to the city of Mexico, which is where I resided. Garay thereupon made him the bearer of a message to me in which he said that he had not the requisite tackle to allow of his departure, the missing boats (six in number) had not yet been found, and the remainder were unfit. He was busy drawing up a report dealing with this matter and exposing why he was unable to leave the land. He likewise informed me that his men were at loggerheads with him saying that they were not obliged to follow him and appealing against the orders of my alcalde mayor on sixteen or seventeen points. One such reason was that several persons in his company had died of hunger: others were more insolent and directed against him personally. It was pointed out at the same time that all attempts to prevent men leaving him were futile, for if they were there at night they were gone by morning, in such wise that those brought in to him captured one day were set at liberty on the morrow, and he would thus lose as many as two hundred men in a single night. He therefore very earnestly begged the alcalde not to depart until he had arrived, for he wished to visit me at this city, and was like to die of weariness if left in idleness in his ships. Two days later he came up with the alcalde who had waited for him, and a messenger was dispatched to me saying that Garay was making his way towards Mexico and was then approaching Cicoaque (a town on the borders of these provinces) by short stages, where he would await my reply. Garay also wrote to me telling me of his misfortunes and expressing the hope that I should be able to fit him out with rigging and men for he was well aware that none other could help him: he had accordingly made up his mind to come and see me, and offered me his eldest son with all that he possessed in marriage to my infant daughter. Meanwhile the alcalde mayor discovered that several highly suspicious persons had accompanied Garay’s fleet, had shown themselves very hostile to my plans, and plainly intended to do no good in the province but rather to cause disturbances; accordingly he ordered them to leave the land in accordance with the royal warrant sent me by your Majesty. The said persons included Alonso de Mendoza, Antonio de la Cerda, Juan de Avila, Lorenzo de Ulloa, Taborda, Juan de Grijalba, Juan de Medina and others. This done, the alcalde’s party came to the town of Cicoaque where my reply to the letters they had sent me reached them. I wrote that I was delighted at Garay’s arrival, and on his coming to this city I would very readily agree to all his proposals, and that his expeditions should be well fitted out as he desired. At the same time I provided that he should be well looked after on the road, ordering all chiefs of townships to give him freely whatever he lacked. On his finally arriving at this city I received him with all the good will and good works that were fitting or that I could do him, indeed as I would have received my own brother; and since in truth I was greatly grieved at the loss of his ships I frankly offered to do everything in the matter that I could. Garay was very eager that the marriage which he had suggested in his letter should be carried out and begged me repeatedly to conclude it. I, to do him pleasure, agreed to his request which he put forward so insistently, upon which with great ceremony and oaths on both sides certain agreements were signed concluding the marriage, and stating the obligations of either party (in which above all else the interests of your Majesty were consulted); in such wise that in addition to our ancient friendship this contract and agreement now existed between us, together with the obligation which we incurred on both of our children, and we were now of such one mind and wish that there was nothing in our mutual agreement which was not to the advantage of either and especially to that of Garay.

I have already described, most powerful Lord, the great efforts of my alcalde mayor to rally Garay’s men, but great as they were they had not sufficed to remove the discontent of the men with their commanders: for hearing the terms of the proclamation and thinking that they would be forced to go with him, they penetrated inland into various parts in small bands of three or half a dozen, and thus hiding themselves so that they could not be taken and brought back they were the principal cause of the Indians rising in that province; not only because they saw the Spaniards thus scattered all over the land but on account of the many perils which they caused with the natives, carrying off their women and food by force, with other like disturbances, which resulted in the whole district rising in rebellion. For the Indians believed that there was dissension among the Spaniards (as Garay had proclaimed by the native interpreter), and accordingly with great cunning, first finding out where and in what strength the Spaniards were, they attacked them by day and night in all the townships amongst which they were scattered; and thus coming upon them unprepared and unarmed they killed many, until their daring reached such a pitch that they approached the town of Santisteban, which was founded in your Majesty’s name, and attacked it so fiercely that they reduced its inhabitants to great distress, so that they thought they were dead men and would have been so had they not been prepared and united, and thus able to resist their enemies, sallying out and fighting with them in the open until they forced them to retreat.

I came to hear of what had happened by a messenger who fled on foot from one such defeat; he told me that the whole province of Pánuco was in revolt, and many of Garay’s men killed together with certain inhabitants of the settlement there. At the news of such disaster I thought that not one of the Spaniards now remained alive, at which God knows what was my grief; for I perceived that no novel event takes place in these parts without causing much hurt and all but the loss of the whole province. Garay was so much affected by this news, both because he felt himself to be the cause of it as because his son had been left behind in Pánuco, that he fell sick of his great grief and of this sickness passed away in three days.

And that your Majesty may be better informed of all that occurred after the first news which reached me, your Majesty must know that the Spanish messenger gave no further account of the rising of the natives in Pánuco other than that he with three horsemen and one on foot had been set upon in the village of Tanjuco by the natives, who had killed two of the riders and him on foot and the horse of the third rider; two of them had then succeeded in escaping under cover of night; moreover, they saw later the building where the lieutenant with fifteen horse and forty foot was to have awaited them, burning, and as it seemed to them, all must doubtless have lost their lives. I waited six or seven days to see whether any further news would come in, and during that time a message arrived from the said lieutenant informing me that he had been waiting in the city of Tantoyuca with fifteen horse and forty foot to be joined by certain other troops who had crossed the river to pacify some Indian tribes still in rebellion. Just before dawn they were surrounded by large numbers of the enemy who set fire to the building in which they were in. They immediately rode off in great haste, yet being unprepared (for they had thought the natives to be as peaceably inclined as they had ever been) they were pursued and all of them killed save only he and two others on horseback who escaped. He himself, however, had lost his horse and was forced to mount behind his comrade; two leagues further on, moreover, they had fallen in with the alcalde of the town with certain soldiers who assisted them, although even with these reinforcements they did not hold out long, but straightway fled out of the province. Of those who had stayed in the town or of the rest of Francisco de Garay’s men who were scattered in various parts they had had no news and believed that not one of them remained alive. For as I have already informed your Majesty, after all that Garay had told the natives on his first arrival, encouraging them to drive out all my men from the province and the like, they were of a mind never to serve a Spaniard again. They had indeed murdered several whom they met with on the roads; it was thought therefore that they had planned this rising in concert, and that just as they had attacked the lieutenant and his men, so they must have fallen upon the inhabitants of the town and all other Spaniards in the various villages, all of whom were totally unprepared for any such outbreak, seeing how willingly they had served them up till then. Being thus better informed of the rebellion in Pánuco I immediately dispatched fifty horse and a hundred crossbowmen and musketeers on foot, with four guns and much powder and shot, all under a Spanish officer, accompanied by two native chiefs of this city with fifteen hundred men each. I ordered the officer to make for the province with all possible haste and endeavour to enter it without delaying in any place save for the most urgent need, until he should arrive at Santisteban del Puerto, where he was to find out news of those who had remained in it, since they might be besieged in some place, and if so he was to assist them. The said officer proceeded north accordingly with all possible speed, entered the province and fought two battles with the natives in which God gave him the victory. He finally arrived at Santisteban where he found twenty-two horse and a hundred foot besieged there, who had already engaged the enemy six or seven times and with the help of a few guns which they had there had succeeded in defending themselves. They could not have defended themselves, however, much longer and were by that time in no small danger, in such wise that had the officer whom I sent arrived three days later not one of them would have remained alive, for they were all dying of hunger. They had already sent one of the brigs (brought thither by Garay) to Vera Cruz, in order thus to get news through to me, there being no other way open, and to bring back provisions to them, which indeed arrived after they had been succoured by the men I sent. They learnt there that another party some hundred strong of horse and foot, left by Garay in a town known as Tamuy, had all been killed, save only for one Jamaican Indian who had escaped through the woods and brought the news how they had been suddenly attacked by night. It was found that of Garay’s men in all 210 had been killed, and of the inhabitants, all settlers, whom I had left in Santisteban, 43, being those who had scattered through the various villages; the numbers of Garay’s men may have been even larger for not all their names were recorded. The men whom my officer took with him, together with those of the lieutenant and the alcalde and those found in Santisteban, now numbered in all some eighty horse; they divided into three bands and waged war on the natives to such effect that as many as 400 chieftains and headmen were captured (without counting common people). These they tried and burnt, after they had confessed to being the prime movers of the rebellion and to being each one of them either concerned with or actually responsible for the death of the Spaniards. This done, the other prisoners were released and the natives returned to the villages. An officer in the name of your Majesty appointed as new rulers in the various townships such persons as were entitled to succeed according to their customs. I now received letters from the officer and others reporting (for which our Lord be praised) that the whole province was again pacified and settled, the natives serving with a good grace, which I think they will continue to do throughout the years to come when the present rancour is past.

I can assure your Majesty that the natives of these parts are so warlike that any disturbing appearance or novelty moves them to rebel, for so it was their custom to rise against their former lord; and no occasion for such rebellion passes without their taking advantage of it.

I mentioned that at the time of Garay’s arrival in the Pánuco I was on the point of sending an expedition by sea to the point of the Hibueras and the causes that led me thereto. This was interrupted by Garay’s appearance. When the disturbance had finished, however, in spite of the fact that it involved me in no little expense for sailors’ wages and provisions for the ships and men to sail in them, yet considering that such an enterprise was much to the profit of your Majesty I pursued my plans and bought additional ships, so that my fleet now contained in all five large ships and one brig, carrying 400 men with sufficient guns, shot and arms, and other provisions and victuals. In addition I sent by the hand of two of my servants eight thousand pesos of gold to Cuba to buy horses and stores, both to take with them on this first voyage and to have ready on their return to load up the ship, so that they might leave nothing for which I sent them undone on account of hunger; in particular I desired that they should not weary out the natives of the land through lack of provisions themselves, but should rather give of what they carried with them than take from the natives. In this order they left the port of Vera Cruz on the 11th of January 1524 bound for Habana (at the western extremity of Cuba), where they are to take on board anything they lack, especially horses, and gather the boats together, and whence with the blessing of God they are then to follow their route to the aforesaid land of Hibueras itself. Once arrived there, at the first harbour they are to land, taking all men, horses and provisions on shore, fortifying themselves with their guns (of which they have many and goodly ones) in the most suitable spot that may appear, and there found a town. They are then to send the three largest of their ships back to Cuba to the harbour of the town of Trinidad (that being most conveniently placed for them) and there one of my servants is to await them with a cargo of such things as may be necessary to them and requested as such by the captain. The smaller ships and the brig under the command of the chief pilot and a cousin of mine, by name Diego de Hurtado, are to coast southwards along the Bay of Ascension seeking for the strait which is said to exist there, and to leave nothing unexplored, after which they are to return to wherever the captain, Cristóbal de Olid, may be, and thus send me news by one of the ships of whatever they may have found, and of what Olid may have learnt of the land and aught that has happened in it, to the end that I may send a long and detailed account to your Majesty.

I also mentioned that I proposed sending Pedro de Albarado in command of a party of citizens to Ucathlan and Guatemala and the provinces of which I have had news lying beyond them. Accordingly in spite of the large expense I had been put to, in horses, arms, guns and munitions as well as in actual money, and considering that God and your Majesty are greatly to be served by such an expedition, since from the reports I have heard I am like to discover many rich and splendid lands inhabited by new and different races, I determined to carry out my original plan and set to fitting out Albarado’s party, whom I dispatched from this city on the 6th of December 1523. He took with him 120 horsemen with spare mounts sufficient for 170, and 300 foot including 130 crossbowmen and musketeers; in addition he had four guns with good supply of powder and shot, and several chieftains both of this city and neigh-bouring cities with certain of their men (though not many, the way being long) accompanied him.

I have had news of them; on January 12th they had reached the province of Tecouantepec and were progressing well. May it please God to guide both them and the other party that He may be truly served, for I firmly believe that going as they are on His service and in the name of your royal Majesty they cannot fail to prosper.

I likewise commanded Albarado to take especial care to send me a long and detailed account of everything that happened to him that I might acquaint your Majesty with the same. And I am persuaded according to the reports and configuration of the land that Albarado and Olid are bound to meet and join forces, providing there be no strait between them.

Many roads would have been opened up in the land and many of its secrets already discovered had I not been hindered by the expeditions coming to these shores. And I can assure your Majesty that great disservice has been done him both in that lands have not been discovered and that great store of pearls and gold have thus been prevented from reaching the royal treasury: but from now onwards in the absence of further expeditions I shall endeavour to restore what has thus been lost. Nor shall I spare either my own person or my private fortune in this work, though I can assure your Majesty that in addition to spending all that fell to my lot I owe some 70,000 pesos of gold to your Majesty to pay my men, which I have taken from the royal revenue, to say nothing of a further 12,000 pesos which I have borrowed from private individuals to meet the expenses of my household.

(On December 8th 1523 an officer was sent east to the town of Espíritu Santo to subjugate the natives of that province who had rebelled. A certain Rodrigo Rangel, alcalde of Tenochtitlan, was also sent to subdue two tribes, the Zapotecas and the Mixes, dwelling in the mountainous country surrounded by Tecouantepec, Chinanta, and Guasacualco, who were very warlike. Two expeditions were necessary before the natives were finally quelled; and as a punishment for their obstinacy they were enslaved and divided among the Spaniards of the party. Each of these expeditions, Cortés says, cost him at the least 5,000 pesos of gold, and those of Olid and Albarado something more than 50,000, not counting certain incidental expenses: “But since it is in the service of your Majesty,” writes Cortés, “I should count it yet a greater favour to spend my life itself; and should such opportunity arise I shall not hesitate to take it.” He then continues:)

I have mentioned the four ships which I had building on the Southern Sea, and lest it should appear that I have been tardy in not completing them before now I will give your Majesty the cause of the delay. The Southern Sea, or at any rate that part of it where I am building the ships, is something over 200 leagues from the harbours in the north where all stores arriving in New Spain are landed, and the road between lies through very rocky mountain passes and across large and rapid rivers, in such wise that goods are carried only with the greatest difficulty across land from the north to the south. To top all, when I had gathered in a warehouse on the harbour where the ships were being built all the stores and implements needed,—sails, ropes, rigging, decks, anchors, pitch, tallow, oakum, bitumen, oil, and the like,—a fire broke out one night and burnt everything, the anchors alone being saved since they could not burn. I have now begun to collect stores again, it being four months since the ship arrived from Castile bringing everything necessary for the ships, for fearing what did actually occur I had provided for it and sent to Spain in readiness. I can assure your Majesty that even before the ships enter the water they will have cost me over 8,000 pesos of gold, exclusive of certain special expenses: but they are now, God be praised, in such way that by Whitsun or Saint John’s day in June, they will be ready to be launched, provided bitumen be not lacking: for as all the previous store was burnt I have been unable until now to obtain more, but I am hoping to obtain some from this country, and have made provision that it shall be sent me. I am reckoning on these ships more than I can say, for by them I am strongly persuaded that if it please God your Majesty will be made ruler of more kingdoms and dominions than all those of which our nation yet has knowledge. May it please Him to direct us that He may be served and your Majesty so prosper, when I think there will be nothing wanting to make your Majesty the monarch of all the world.

After it had pleased God that we should capture the great city of Tenochtitlan it seemed to me unwise for the time being to reside in it on account of many inconveniences, and I took up my residence with all my company at Cuyoacan, a town lying on the shore of the lake which I have already mentioned. I was always desirous, however, that the city should be rebuilt considering its great and marvellous site, and endeavoured to recall all its inhabitants who had fled to various parts when the fighting was over. I have long kept its governor, Guatimucin, a prisoner, but now entrusted the work of repopulating it to a young native captain whom I had known while Muteczuma was still alive. And that he might have more authority I gave him the same position which he had held under the native ruler, that is to say ciguacoat,—a kind of lieutenant governor. Other natives whom I had known I likewise entrusted with offices such as they were used to have. To this ciguacoat and the rest I gave lordships with lands and followers on which to live, although not so large as they had held before nor such as would enable them to rebel at any time. I have since taken every opportunity of showing them respect and favour, and they have worked to such good purpose that there are now more than 30,000 inhabitants within the city, and the same good order is observed in the market-places and in their transactions as in former days. I have granted them such liberties and exemptions that many flock into the city daily and they live in great freedom, those versed in the mercantile arts, tor instance, working as day labourers for the Spaniards: these comprise carpenters, masons, stone-cutters, silversmiths, and like craftsmen. The merchants open their stalls in safety and sell freely: the rest live either by fishing,—a flourishing trade in this city,—or by agriculture, many of them having their own plots, in which they grow all those of our native plants of which we have been able to obtain seedlings.

And I can assure your Majesty that if plants and seeds from Spain were to be had here, as I requested in my last letter that your Majesty might be pleased to order to be dispatched, the natives of these parts show such industry in tilling land and planting trees that in very short time there would be great abundance, from which I think no little profit would redound to your Majesty’s imperial crown, for by this means the fruitfulness of these parts would be secured, and your Majesty would draw from them greater revenue and dominions than in all those regions which in the name of our Lord your Majesty now possesses; for which reason your Majesty can be very certain that he will not find me lacking in such a scheme but rather that I will do everything in my power to forward it.

After the capital was taken I put in hand the building of a fortress in the water where the brigs could be safely anchored and yet from it attack the whole city if need arose, in such wise that I should command all the entrances and exits of the city; and this was done. I have seen other fortresses and arsenals but not one to equal it; others of a wider experience report the same. The manner of its building is this: on the side exposed to the lagoon there are two very strong towers with embrasures where necessary. Each of the towers juts out beyond the side-wall, which it can thus cover with its guns. Between these two towers the main building extends backwards from the lagoon; it is triple-aisled, and has a gate by which the brigs can pass in and out. The whole of this building is likewise heavily embrasured, and has at its further end toward the city another large tower together with various quarters for the men, also provided with defensive and offensive fortifications. I am sending your Majesty a drawing of it and will therefore give no further details, save to say that so long as we hold it, and guard it with the same number of ships and guns as we now have there, the decision as to peace or war lies in our hands. Once this building was completed, I considered that it was safe to proceed with my plan, which was to repeople the city, and therefore took up my quarters with all of my company within it. The various plots of land were divided out among the inhabitants and to each one of the “Conquerors” I gave in your Majesty’s name a plot for which he had laboured in addition to that which he was entitled to receive as a settler and an inhabitant, and those who have settled have worked so rapidly to build themselves houses that many of them are already completed and others are well on their way. Moreover there is such plenty of stone, lime, wood and bricks made by the natives, and they are building such large and comely houses that your Majesty may be certain that within five years’ time it will be the noblest and most populous city in the world and the best built. The district in which we Spaniards have settled is apart from that of the natives, being separated by a waterway which is spanned nevertheless by numerous wooden bridges, thus allowing commerce from the one side to the other. The natives have two great market-places one in their own quarter and one in the Spanish quarter. In these are to be found all such manner of produce as is grown throughout the land, for there is nothing which is not brought there for sale; and the variety of merchandise is not less than in the former days of prosperity. It is true that there are now no ornaments of gold or silver, nor featherwork, nor other treasures as there were wont to be; a few small pieces of gold and silverwork appear, but not in the quantity as before.

Owing to the differences which Diego Velázquez has had with me, and the ill-will which Don Juan de Fonseca, Bishop of Burgos, has ever borne toward me, being roused up in that by the said Velázquez, I have not been provided with the guns and arms which I badly needed, although constantly sending money for them. For by the Bishop’s intention and orders the officials of the imperial provision house in the city of Seville were set against me and in particular one Juan López de Recalde, the contador, upon whom during the Bishop’s term of office there everything depended. Yet since necessity was ever the prime sharpener of men’s wits and I now found myself in such sore straits without hope of remedy (for the officials I knew would keep such information from your Majesty’s ear) I set myself to finding a means by which that which had caused us such toil and peril to win should not be lost to your Majesty, which disaster would indeed not only cause great disservice to God but great danger to all such of us as remain here. I therefore hastened to dispatch messengers through all the neighbouring provinces in search of copper which we bartered with the natives for a high price that we might obtain it the more readily. Much was thus brought in, and I set a master gunsmith who luckily was to be found here to the work of casting cannon. In this way I had two moderately large culverins made, with such success that for their size they could not have been beaten. I had now copper, but tin was still lacking, without which guns could not be made; it had been difficult to find enough for these two and I had had to pay heavily to people who had dishes and other plate made of it, but more could not be had either cheap or dearly. I began to enquire therefore in all parts whether there was anywhere any to be had, and by the grace of God, who has ever been swift to supply us with what we lack, I discovered certain small pieces of it being used as coins among the natives of a province of Tazco. Proceeding further in my search I found that in both this province and in others it was commonly used as money. Finally I learnt that it was mined in the province of Tazco some seven-and-twenty leagues from this city; upon which, having discovered the situation of the mines, I sent Spaniards with mining tools and they brought me back samples of it. I have since given orders for all the necessary tin to be mined there and this has been done although with no small labour. Those who went to seek for tin, however, came upon a vein of iron which according to experts is of exceeding richness.

Since finding this tin I have continued to cast guns at regular intervals, and five in all have been finished up to the present, consisting of two medium-sized culverins, two slightly smaller and a small cannon; I have also two other small cannon which I brought with me to these parts and another medium-sized culverin which I bought from the effects of the governor Juan Ponce de León. From the ships which have come to these shores I have in all thirty-five pieces of cannon in bronze of all sizes from falconets upwards, and in iron as many as seventy pieces, including lombards, small bore culverins and the like. Thus, God be praised, we can now defend ourselves. God provided us no less with powder, for we found such good store of saltpetre and of so excellent a quality, that we could provide for other needs had we but suitable vessels in which to heat it, although we certainly consume a large quantity in our various expeditions. As for sulphur, I have already described to your Majesty the mountain in this province from which rises a great column of smoke. A Spaniard was let down into the crater some seventy or eighty furlongs on the end of a rope, and succeeded in gathering sufficient for our needs up to the present: in the future this method of procuring it will be unnecessary: it is certainly dangerous and I am continually writing to Spain to provide us; your Majestly has been pleased to see that no Bishop can now prevent its reaching us.

(Before moving his quarters to the capital Cortés had visited Vera Cruz and Medellín to inspect them and arrange certain matters. It now became plain that the situation of the old Rica Villa de Vera Cruz was no longer very convenient, and a new site was chosen some two leagues east. The inhabitants of the township of Medellín twenty leagues inland were moved to this new town and port, and the work of clearing trees and building houses was immediately set in hand. Boats would be able to sail right up to the quays and the town would thus form a general warehouse of stores for the whole of New Spain.

Work on the road from the new town to the capital has begun and the journey will thus be shortened by a whole day.

Cortés has also decided on certain plans for the future. He intends sending an expedition to explore the coast north of the Pánuco to Florida, and so on as far as the Bahamas itself, it being generally held, he says, that in this coast there must be some strait giving access to the Southern Sea. The advantages accruing from such a discovery are so great that although in debt and burdened with the cost of various other expeditions by sea and land, he has determined to dispatch three caravels and a couple of brigs on this adventure, notwithstanding that it will cost him over 10,000 pesos. “Even if no strait be discovered,” says Cortés, “it is impossible but that many great and rich lands will be opened up by which your Majesty will be well served.” In July of 1524 he also hopes to dispatch three ships from the port where they have been a-building to look for a strait; if they do not find it they will at least follow the coast as far as the point which Magellan had already reached from the south. The question whether there be a strait either to the north or south will thus be definitely settled. Cortés then proceeds:)

The officials sent by your Majesty to audit the royal accounts and revenue have arrived and have begun their work with those whom I had appointed in your Majesty’s name to hold this office. They will give your Majesty an account of all the provisions that have been made in this respect: I will therefore waste no time in giving a particular report of it to your Majesty, and will simply refer to that which they are sending, which I think will be such as will make clear to your Majesty the care and watchfulness I have expended on everything attaching to your Majesty’s service; and although the labour of carrying on wars and pacifying the land has been great, as is amply shown by the result, yet I have not on that account neglected any effort to preserve and gather in everything belonging to your Majesty upon which I have been able to lay my hands. It appears from the account which the officials are sending your Majesty, and which your Majesty will see, that in the pacification of these parts and the expansion of those dominions which your Majesty holds here, I have spent some 72,000 pesos of the royal revenue. It is well that your Majesty should know that I could do nothing else, for I only began to encroach on the royal revenue when I was left with nothing to spend of my own and indeed owing some 30,000 pesos to private persons: thus since there was no other course to take and what was necessary in your Majesty’s service could not otherwise be undertaken I was obliged to spend the money. Nor do I think that the gains have been or will be small, for they will hardly be less than a thousand per cent, of the sum invested. But since your Majesty’s officials when I stated that the sum was spent in your Majesty’s service were yet un-willing to enter it in their accounts saying that they had neither commission nor power to do so, I beg your Majesty (if it appears well spent to him) to credit me with the amount and pay back to me in addition some 50,000 pesos which I have spent of my own substance or borrowed from my friends; for failing such repayments I should be unable to meet my creditors and should find myself in great embarrassment. This I think your Majesty will not permit, but rather in addition to this repayment will grant me many and signal favours; for besides that your Majesty is so catholic and Christian a Prince, my services for their own part merit no less, and of these their fruit will bear sufficient testimony.

From the officials and others in their company I learn that what I dispatched to your Majesty by the hands of Antonio de Quiñones and Alonso de Avila, as representatives of New Spain, did not arrive in Castile, but was captured by the French by reason of the insufficient forces sent by the Indies House in Seville to accompany the treasure ships from the Azores²². I was much grieved at the loss, for the things were so rich and strange that I desired greatly that your Majesty should see them, and in addition they had made my services more manifest. Yet I was also well content that they should be thus lost, since it is but slight lack to your Majesty, and I shall endeavour to send others yet more rich and strange, having heard news of provinces which. I have but lately sent to conquer, and still others to which I shall send expeditions so soon as I have men to spare. Moreover the French and other princes to whom these new discoveries were well known will now perceive why they should subject themselves to your Majesty’s imperial crown, for over and above the many and great kingdoms and lordships which your Majesty possesses in these distant parts, they will see that I, the least of your Majesty’s vassals, am yet able to render such great and signal services. And as the first fruits of my offering I am now sending by Diego de Soto, my servant, a few things which were then put aside as unworthy to accompany the others, and certain others which I have since had made, and which, although as I say, were put aside, have yet something to commend them. I am sending in addition a silver culverin cast from 24 hundredweights of silver, which cost me some 24,500 pesos of gold for the metal, and some further 3,000 pesos for engraving, carriage to the port, and the like. Yet considering that it was so rich and marvellous a piece of work and worthy to go before so mighty and excellent a Prince I resolved to complete the work and spend the money. I beg your Majesty to receive this slight service and see in it a token of my great desire to do him greater services if fortune so aid me. For though in debt, as I said to your Majesty before, yet I was well content to increase my indebtedness in my eagerness that your Majesty should know the desire that I have to serve him; for my ill-luck has been such that up to this present I have preferred so many plaints before your Majesty that they have obscured my desire to do your Majesty some service.

I am sending at the same time to your Majesty 70,000 pesos of gold as part of the royal revenue, as your Majesty will see from the accounts which both I and the royal officials are sending. Moreover, we have ventured to send such a large sum entire both on account of the need which we are informed your Majesty must have of it to carry on his wars and other matters, and that your Majesty may not grieve over the loss of the former packet. In future every opportunity will be taken of sending home as much gold as is possible. For your Majesty may rest assured that as things are tending at present and the kingdoms and dominions of your Majesty continue to grow, he will draw revenues from them more safely and at less expense than in all his other lands, provided that no further disturbances hinder us as they have hindered us in the past. I mention this because but two days since, Gonzalo de Salazar, your Majesty’s factor, arriving at the port of San Juan in New Spain, informed me that he was told in Cuba that Diego Velázquez, Admiral’s deputy, had come to an agreement with Cristóbal de Olid, whom I sent to settle the Hibueras in your Majesty’s name, that he should seize the land on behalf of Diego Velázquez. And although of a truth the matter is so ugly and of such disservice to your Majesty that I could hardly believe it, yet knowing the wiles that Diego Velázquez has ever used to injure me and prevent me from doing your Majesty some service I am led to think it true. For in default of all else, Velázquez endeavours to stop men from coming over to us, and as he is in command of the Island he takes such as wish to do so and persecutes them, despoiling them of much of their gear, and finally bargains with them for their freedom, to gain which they do and say anything that he requires. I will inform myself of the truth of the matter and if I find it to be thus I propose to send a force over to Cuba, arrest Diego Velázquez and send him as a prisoner to your Majesty; for once the root of all evils has been cut, and truly this man is such, all the other branches will wither, and I shall be enabled without hindrance to carry out enterprises both already begun and those which I hope to undertake in your Majesty’s service.

In no letter that I have written to your Majesty have I failed to point out the opportunity that exists to convert certain of the natives in these parts to our holy Catholic Faith, and I have begged your Majesty to dispatch religious persons of saintly life and character for that purpose. However, few, if indeed any, have arrived up to this present, and since it is certain that they would reap a great harvest I am again bringing the matter to the notice of your Majesty begging him to dispatch priests as speedily as possible, by which our Lord God will be mightily served and the desire of your Majesty as a true Catholic will be fulfilled. In the letter which Antonio de Quiñones and Alonso de Avila carried to you as our representatives, the town councils of New Spain and I begged your Majesty to provide bishops and other dignitaries for the administration of the sacred offices of our religion, and so it seemed to us good at that time. But now considering the matter well, it occurs to me that your Majesty will do better to make different provision to the end that the natives of these parts may be more speedily converted and instructed in the mysteries or our holy Catholic Faith, to wit, that your Majesty should dispatch to these parts many religious persons, as I have said, eager for the conversion of these people, and that they should build houses and monasteries throughout the provinces such as seem to us most suitable, and should receive the tenths of the charge in order to make their homes and maintain themselves, any remaining sum to be expended on churches and their decoration in townships where Spaniards are settled and on the priests who minister to them. These tenths should be collected by your Majesty’s officials who should render an account of them and share the sum out among the monasteries and churches, which indeed would suffice for all and more than all that could be done in this matter in your Majesty’s service. I beg therefore that your Majesty may appeal to the Pope, to grant him the tenths for this purpose, giving him to understand the service which will be rendered to our Lord God by the conversion of these people, and that the object can be attained in no other way. For should we have bishops and prelates here they would not put off the custom (which for our sins they now have) of wasting the goods of the church in pompous ceremonial and like evils, and of gathering together estates to leave to their sons or kinsmen. Indeed the evil would be yet graver in that the natives of these parts used commonly to have priests learned in their rites and ceremonies who withdrew so much from the world both in honesty and chastity of life, that were one of them suspected of anything of this nature he was put to death. And should they now see those things which concern the church and the service of God in the hands of canons and other such dignitaries, and learn that they were ministers of God, seeing they indulge in those vices and profanities which at this day are common in Spain, they would despise our Faith and deem it but a jest. The danger of this would be so real that I doubt whether any subsequent missionary effort could succeed in converting them. Since, then, so much depends upon this, and the conversion of these people is and must ever be the principal intention of your Majesty, which we must follow in our dealings with those among whom we have settled, taking as Christians especial care of them, I venture to advise your Majesty on this point and give him my opinion, which I beg your Majesty may receive as from his loyal subject and vassal; for just as I labour and shall labour with all my bodily force to extend the dominions of your Majesty in these parts and publish his royal name and power among these peoples, so also I am eager to labour in spirit that your Majesty may command our holy Faith to be sown in these parts by which deed he may reap the reward of eternal life. Moreover since it will be difficult to send for bishops from other parts for such matters as the admission to religious orders, the consecration of churches, vessels, oils, and the like, it will be necessary for your Majesty to persuade the Pope to delegate his power to the two chiefs of the religious orders who shall settle in this country, the one of the order of Saint Francis the other of Saint Dominic, who together will enjoy (it is to be hoped) the largest powers that your Majesty can grant. For these lands are so widely separated from the Roman church, and we Christians who reside and will reside here so cut off from all external aid to conscience, yet like all men so apt to fall, that it is essential that the Pope should stretch a point in this matter and endow these officials with powers beyond the ordinary: such powers to reside in the persons actually living in these parts, whether it be the general of the order for this region or in the provincial official of each one of these orders.

I have likewise heard, most Catholic Majesty, from ships but lately come from the Islands that your Majesty’s judges and officials in Cuba have publicly proclaimed that neither from that Island nor from any other shall mares (or other creatures that can multiply) be shipped to New Spain under pain of death. This they have done that we may always be forced to buy their beasts and cattle, for which they charge us excessive prices. These things ought not to be, for it is common knowledge what great disservice is done to your Majesty in preventing the settling and pacification of this realm. They know our need of horses, and yet hinder us both in holding what we have won and in gaining more, in spite of the great assistance and treasure that the Islands have received from these lands of New Spain. And since they have little enough need of what they deny us, I beg your Majesty to send his royal decree to the Islands proclaiming that all who wish to ship animals out of the country are at liberty to do so without let or hindrance; for without them we can do nothing here in the way of further conquest or even of holding what we have won, with which indeed I had been well content. They took great delight in spreading their proclamations abroad: though had I issued another to the effect that nothing brought from the Islands should be allowed to be unloaded in this country save only what they denied us, they would soon be ready to bring us animals in order that we should receive other cargoes, for their only means of wealth consists in trade with this land. Indeed, before such trade was carried on there was not a man in the Islands who owned a thousand pesos of gold, and now they possess more than they ever did before. Yet to give no occasion of railing to those who desire to speak ill of me I have refrained from any such action before discovering the matter to your Majesty, that your Majesty may order it as is most proper for the royal service.

I have also informed your Majesty of the necessity of sending plants of every kind to this land and of the opportunities that exist for agriculture of the most varied sorts: and since till now nothing has been done in this matter I once more beg your Majesty, since it will be greatly to his profit, to give orders to the provisioning house at Seville that every ship bound for these lands shall carry a certain number of plants, without which it shall not be allowed to set sail, the which will be of great service in the settlement and prosperity of this land.

It behoves me to seek every means possible for the settling of these lands, that both Spaniards and natives may maintain themselves and multiply, and our holy Catholic Faith take root, with which task your Majesty graciously charged me, our Lord God being pleased to make me the instrument by which He should be made known, and I have therefore made and proclaimed certain decrees in your Majesty’s imperial name, a copy of which I am sending to your Majesty. I will therefore say nothing further of them, save only that so far as I have been able to ascertain up to the present it is highly expedient that the said decrees should be carried out. With some of them the Spaniards in these parts are not too well pleased, especially with those which recommend them to settle and straightway take root on the land. For all or the greater number of them have notions of using towards these lands as they used towards the Islands before them, that is to say, impoverishing them, destroying them, and then abandoning them. And since it seems to me we should be greatly to blame did we not profit by the experience of the past to remedy the present and the future, providing against those causes through which it is common knowledge the Islands have been ruined (more especially considering the great extent and riches of these lands as I have many times declared to your Majesty, in the which our Lord God can mightily be served and your Majesty’s revenues increased) I beg your Majesty to consider these decrees, and inform me as to what line I should take, both in the keeping and carrying out of these decrees as of all those by which your Majesty may be the better served. I shall ever be at pains to issue such other orders as may seem to me best, for the extent and diversity of the lands which are daily discovered and the secrets which thus become apparent are such that for each new matter new decisions and new orders are necessary; so that should I seem to contradict past orders in those which I now report or shall report to your Majesty, your Majesty may believe that a new problem has led me to a new decision.

Invincible Caesar, our Lord God watch over the imperial person of your Cæsarian Majesty, and keep and prosper him with the increase of yet greater kingdoms and dominions for many years, together with all else that can be desired for your royal Majesty. From the great city of Tenochtitlan in New Spain, the 15th day of October 1524. From your Majesty’s most humble slave and vassal, who kisses your Majesty’s royal feet and hands.

HERNANDO CORTéS.