Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/245

Rh and all belonged to mosques. It is the best adapted for Spaniards to live in of any I have seen since leaving the port, as it has some uncultivated lands and water for the purpose of raising cattle, such as have no others we have seen so far. For, such is the multitude of people who live in these parts, that there is not a palm of land which is not cultivated, and even then there are many places in which they suffer for want of bread, and there are many poor who beg amongst the rich in the streets, and at the market places, just as the poor do in Spain, and other civilised countries.

I spoke, to those messengers of Montezuma who remained with me, about the treachery which had been plotted against me in the city, and how the lords of it affirmed that it had been done  Concerning the Plot of the Cho- lulans by the counsel of Montezuma. I said that it did not seem to me that it was a deed for such a great lord as he was, who had sent me such honourable persons as his messengers, saying he was my friend, while on the other hand he devised plans for injuring me by means of strangers, so that he might cast off the responsibility if things did not turn out as he thought. But since it was thus, and he did not keep his word, nor did he speak the truth to me, I now intended to alter my plans; for until now I had come with the intention of seeing and speaking with him, and of having him for a friend, and holding many conversations, and in the hope of peace. Now, however, I would go to his country with war, doing him all the harm I could as an enemy, though this I regretted very much, as I had always wanted him for a friend that might counsel with him respecting what I was to do in this country.

They answered me, that as they had been with me many days, they knew nothing concerning that plot, except what they had heard in the city after the occurrence, and they could not believe that it was done by the order and