Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/153

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133

other parts until they reached the sea, of which they likewise took possession. They brought me a full description of the coast, and, with them, came some natives of it. I received them and the others graciously, and they, having been informed of Your Majesty's great power, and given some presents, returned very contented to their country.

In the other account, Most Catholic Lord, I told Your Majesty, how, when these Indians routed and expelled me from the city of Temixtitan the first time, all the provinces subject to the city rebelled against the service of Your Majesty, and made war upon us; and, by this account, Your Majesty may see how we reduced to Your Royal service almost all the provinces which had rebelled. Certain provinces on the coast of the North Sea at ten, fifteen, and thirty leagues' distance from the said city of Temixtitan, had revolted and rebelled, and their natives had treacherously killed certainly more than one hundred Spaniards who had thought themselves safe. I could not possibly proceed against them before the conclusion of the war, so, after I had dispatched those Spaniards who had first discovered the South Sea, I determined to send Gonzalo de Sandoval, alguacil mayor, with thirty-five horsemen, two hundred Spaniards, some of our allies, and some of the chiefs and natives of Temixtitan, to this province, which we called Tatactetelco and Tuxtepeque and Guatuxco and Aulicaba; and, having been instructed how to conduct this expedition, he began his preparations for it.

At this season, the lieutenant, whom I had left in the town of La Segura de la Frontera, in the province of Tepeaca, came to this city of Cuyoacan, and informed me how some of the natives of that province and other neighbouring ones, vassals of Your Majesty, were troubled by the natives of the provinces of Guaxacaque [Oaxaca] who made war on them because they were our