Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/188

168 for himself, and in taking all the gold which they had obtained without giving them any share of it. He also has interests with dishonest men, for his own advantage, and by the mere fact of his having the Governorship, and power of distribution, nobody dares to oppose him, knowing and fearing that he can ruin them. Your Majesties have no information about this, nor has there ever been any account made of it, because the procurators, who have gone heretofore from the said Island, are creatures and servants of his hands, whom he holds by giving them Indians at their pleasure; and the procurators, who come from the smaller towns to attend to the affairs of the communities, have to do as he wishes, because he buys them up with Indians. When such procurators return to their towns, and are asked to give an account of what they have done, the people declare that poor men should not be sent as procurators, because, for one cacique whom Diego Velasquez gives them, they will do everything he wants. The municipal officers and alcaldes who have Indians dare not speak to, or reprove, the procurators, who have done what they ought not to have done out of compliance to Diego Velasquez, for fear that the said Diego Velasquez might take away their Indians. In this, and other things, it is very good [word missing in MS.] from which Your Royal Highnesses may see, that all the accounts which the Island of Fernandina has made of what Diego Velasquez has done, and the favours which they asked for him, are on account of the Indians he has given to the procurators, and not because the communities are satisfied or wish such things; rather would they desire that those procurators were punished. The above being notorious to all the inhabitants and householders of this town of Vera Cruz, they assembled with the procurator of this council, and have asked and required us, by their requirements, signed with their names, that, in the name of all, we should beg