Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/172

152 there were as many as two hundred and twenty men slain. They also said that the past should be the past, and henceforward they wished to be vassals of those Princes of whom he had told them, giving and holding themselves as such, and that they would acknowledge and bind themselves to serve them whenever they should be commanded to do so in the name of Your Majesties. Thus peace was made and agreed upon, and the Captain asked the said Indians, through the interpreter whom we had with us, who were the people who had taken part in the battle, and they answered that they came from eight provinces, and according to their counting they were in all forty thousand men, and that they knew perfectly well how to count up to that number. Your Royal