Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/111

Rh and presented to His Majesty, since he was pleased to order payment to me. This sum I wish and direct to go to my heir, the said Don Martin Cortes, my son and successor in my house and estate, and to the successors who shall follow him.

XXXVIII. Item: I direct that the said Don Martin, my son, (and those who may succeed), shall have the following upon his conscience: His Majesty granted me the towns, places, and lands of the estate I have and own in New Spain, with all the rents, rights, tributes, and contributions belonging to His Majesty, exactly as the former rulers used to receive them before the conquest. I have used all diligence to verify the said rents, tributes, rights, and contributions which those rulers enjoyed, and I was careful to continue the former masters where such tributes and rents are usually paid, in agreement with whom I have collected the said rents and tributes until today. I direct that, if it shall at any time appear that I was badly informed as to the above, and have taken anything not belonging to me, of which I was until today unaware, thinking I took my rights, it shall be rectified.

XXXIX. Item: as there have been many doubts and opinions as to whether it is permitted with a good conscience to hold the natives as slaves, whether captives of war or by purchase, and up till now this has not been determined, I direct my son and successor Don Martin, and those who may follow him, to use all diligence to settle this point for the peace of my conscience and their own.

XL. Item: I direct that, as in some places on my estates pieces of ground have been taken for orchards, vineyards, cotton-fields and other purpose, it must be ascertained whether such lands belonged to the natives of those towns, and, if so, I order that they be restored, with all such profits their owners might have derived from them, compensating, and receiving in total, discharge of all the rents and tributes which they were obliged to pay for them; and, in the case of Bernardino del Castillo, my servant, to whom, in past years, I gave a piece of land, situated on the outskirts of Coyoacan, on which he built a sugar mill, I order that this be done should it appear that the land belongs to third parties.