Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/214

194 they had in view. Within an hour after hearing what the said captain made known to me, I left for Vera Cruz, where I learned that the ships were anchored about three leagues down the coast, and that no one had landed. I then went along the coast with some people, to reconnoitre, and, when I was about one league from the ships, I met three men from them, amongst whom there was one who called himself a notary public, who told me he had brought the other two as witnesses to a certain notification and requirement with which he said their captain had ordered him to serve me on his behalf, and which he had brought with him. They desired to make it known to me, that he had discovered that country, and wished to settle in it, for which reason he required me to define the boundaries with him, as he wished to make his settlement down the coast five leagues below Nautical, which is a city now called Almeria, twelve leagues from Vera Cruz. I answered that their captain should come with his ships to the port of Vera Cruz, where we could talk, and I would learn his intentions, and, if his ships and people needed anything, I would help them with what I could. Inasmuch as he said that he had come in the service of Your Sacred Majesty, I only desired that occasion should be given me to serve Your Highness, and, in helping him, I believed that I would do this. They replied, that neither the captain, nor any of his people, would on any account land an}n,'here that I might be.

Believing that they must have done some harm in the country, inasmuch as they were afraid to come before me, when night came on I hid myself near the coast, opposite to where the said ships were anchored. There I remained concealed until the next day about noon, expecting the captain or his pilot to come on shore, from