Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/206

186 Having had no opportunity since then, not only for the want of ships, and being myself occupied in the conquest and pacification of this country, but also because nothing has been heard of the said ships and the procurators, I have related nothing more to Your Majesty concerning what has since been done. God knows the pain which this has caused me, for I have wished that Your Highness should understand the affairs of this country, which is so great and important, since, as I have already said in my other account, it is no less worthy to warrant your assuming anew the title of Emperor, than is Germany, of which, by the grace of God, Your Sacred Majesty already possesses the title.

It would entail going on indefinitely, were I to attempt to tell Your Highness all the particulars, and everything relating to these parts and new kingdoms, and everything in them worthy to be told; I beg Your Sacred Majesty to hold me pardoned, if I do not give so full an account to Your Highness as I ought, because neither my ability, nor my opportunity at this time, favour my doing so. I shall, nevertheless, endeavour to tell Your Highness the truth in the best manner possible, and what, for the present, is necessary that Your Majesty should know; and I must likewise crave Your Highness's pardon if I do not recount all that is necessary, the precise when and how, and if I should not specify some names, not only of cities and towns, but also of provinces which, giving themselves for your subjects and vassals, have offered their allegiance to Your Majesty. This I beg, because, in a certain recent misfortune, of which I will hereafter in this writing give a full account to Your Highness, I have lost all my papers, and the official agreements, which I had made with the natives of this country, besides many other things.

In my other account, Most Excellent Prince, I told Your Majesty of all the cities and towns which until then