not satisfied with some of them, especially those which require them to settle in the country, for all, or most of them, expected to conduct themselves here as they have done in the islands; where their conduct consisted in consuming the country's substance, destroying, and afterwards abandoning it. But, as it seems to me, we who have had experience in the past, would be blamable, did we not provide a remedy for the present and the future, correcting notorious abuses which caused ills on the said islands; especially as this country being, as I have already many times written to Your Majesty, of such size and wealth, where our Lord may be well served, and the royal revenues of Your Majesty increased. I, therefore, beseech Your Majesty to have the ordinances examined, and to send me an order respecting what Your Highness may approve, directing me what to do, not only concerning the compliance with the said ordinances, but also in how far Your Majesty desires their execution. I shall always be careful to add whatever circumstances may seem to me to require, for the country is so large, the climate so diverse, and there are so many new discoveries, that it is necessary to modify plans and counsels according to new events, so that if in anything I had said, or shall hereafter say to Your Majesty, there seems to be something contradictory to what I had said before, Your Excellency may believe that the new case obliges me to give a new opinion.
Most invincible Cæsar, may God, our Lord, guide,
Gambling was the hardest vice to control, and Cortes's enemies were not slow to pick upon his own fondness for cards and dice, alleging that he privately practised and encouraged what he publicly condemned.
Unfortunately the Spaniards introduced the most reprehensible of all "sports," — if indeed such it can be honestly called, — the bullfight as early as 1526 (Vetancourt, Teatro Mexicano).
Dancing was not discouraged, and religious festivals were celebrated with gorgeous processions, so life was not quite so colourless as it was afterwards made in the New England colonies.
