Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/167

Rh On the morning of the following day some Indians came in a canoe and brought us a certain number of chickens and a little maize, which might be sufficient for [text missing] number of men for one meal. They told us to take that, and to depart from their country, and the captain spoke to them through the interpreter whom we had, and made them understand that he would in no wise go away until he knew the secret of it, so that he might write a true account of it to Your Majesties. He again begged them that, as they would suffer no harm from him, they would not obstruct his entrance to the said town, because they were vassals of Your Royal Highnesses. But still they answered, that we should not venture into the said town but must depart from their country.

When they were gone the Captain determined to go there, so he ordered one of his captains to start with two hundred men by a road which he had discovered during the night we slept on land, while he, himself, embarked with about eighty men in the barques and brigantines, stationing himself in front of the town, ready to disembark whenever they would allow him.

When he came there he found the Indians ready for battle, armed with their bows and arrows and lances and rodelas, and they told him to depart from  Fighting at Tabasco their country, but if he would not go, and wanted war, to begin at once, for they were men to defend their town. After the Captain had required them three times and asked Your Highnesses' notary, whom he carried with him, to bear witness to the fact, he told them that he did not want war. Seeing, however, that it was the determination of the said Indians to resist his landing, and that they began to discharge arrows at us, he ordered the charges of artillery to be fired, and that we should