Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/169

Rh certain jewels of very thin gold of little value. They told the Captain that they brought him those ornaments to induce him to go away, and, without doing them any harm or injury, to leave them their land where they had always been. The said Captain answered, saying, that, as to doing them any harm or injury, he had no such wish, and as to leaving them the land, they must understand that from henceforward they were to have for their Lords, the greatest Princes of the earth, whose vassals they would be, and that they would have to serve them, and that, in acting thus, Your Majesties would grant them many mercies, and favours would grow upon them, and that they should be protected and defended from their enemies. They answered that they would be satisfied to do this, but still they required that their country should be left to them. Thus we all became friends, and, our friendship being established, the Captain told them that the Spaniards there with him had nothing to eat, as nothing had been brought from the ships, and he prayed them to bring us food during the time we remained on the Island; they answered that the next day they would, and thus they went away, and remained away that day and the next, nor did they bring us any food.

As all of us were, on this account, in great need of supplies, on the third day some Spaniards asked permission of the Captain to go to some farms in the