Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/175

Rh to he had agreed, and spreading a white cloth before the Captain, he offered him certain precious jewels of gold, which he placed upon it; of these, and the others which we afterwards obtained, we make relation to Your Majesties in a memorial which our procurators take with them.

After the said cacique had taken leave of us, and returned satisfied to his house, some of those noble persons who came in this armada, gentle  Decision to Colonise men, and sons of gentlemen, zealous in the service of our Lord, and of Your Royal Highnesses, and desirous for the exaltation of your royal crown, and the extension of your dominions, and the increase of your revenues, assembled and spoke with the Captain Fernando Cortes, saying that this land was good and that, judging by the sample of gold which that cacique had brought, it was reasonable to believe that it must be very rich, and that he and all his Indians were well disposed towards us. For these reasons, it seemed to us that it was not advantageous for Your Majesties' service to do as Diego Velasquez had ordered the said Captain Fernando Cortes to do (which was to trade for all the gold we could, and, having obtained it, to return to the island of Fernandina, in order that the said Diego Velasquez, and the said Captain mightpr [sic]ofit exclusively by it,