Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/145

Rh discovery up to its present state, so that Your Majesties will know the country as it really is, the people who possess it, and the manner of their life, and the rites and ceremonies, the sect or law they obey, and the profit which Your Royal Highnesses may derive from it; and may also know who have here rendered services to Your Majesties, in order that Your Royal Highnesses may act as best suits your service. The most faithful and exact account is as follows:

It may be two years, a little more or less, Most Enlightened Princes, that, in the City of Santiago, which is in the Island of Fernandina, of whose towns  Francisco Fernan- dez de Cordoba we have been citizens, three inhabitants of the said Island united, and the one was called Francisco Fernandez de Cordoba, another Lope Ochoa de Caicedo, and the third Cristobal