Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/187

Rh been done in Your Majesties' service, in sending this gift of gold and silver, and valuables, which we have obtained here in this country, and now send, would not have been approved by him. This clearly appears through four of his servants who have come here, and who, when they perceived our wish to send all to Your Royal Highnesses, as we do, declared that it would be better to send it to Diego Velasquez, and otherwise opposed their being sent to Your Majesties. For this we ordered them to be imprisoned, and they will remain prisoners until justice decides, after which we shall relate to Your Majesties what we have done with them. So, because we have seen what the said Diego Velasquez has done, and our experience of it, we fear that, if he should come to this country with any commission, he would treat us ill, as he has done in the Island of Fernandina, during the time that he had charge of its government, doing justice to none except as he pleased, and punishing those whom he chose, from anger or passion, but not from justice or reason. He has thus destroyed many good subjects by reducing them to great poverty, in refusing to give them any Indians, and taking them all