Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/246

222 counsel of Montezuma; and they besought me, before T determined to abandon his friendship and to make war as I said, that I should inform myself of the truth, and permit one of them, who would promptly return, to go and speak with Montezuma, as from this city to the place where he resides is twenty leagues. I told them I agreed to this, and let one of them go, who after six days returned, together with the first who had gone, and they brought me ten plates of gold, and fifteen hundred pieces of stuff, and many provisions of chickens and panicap, which is a beverage they drink; and they told me that Montezuma was much grieved over the disturbance that had happened, and which had been arranged in Churultecal. They said that I must believe that it had not been by his counsel and order, for he assured me it was not so, and that, though the people who were there in garrison were of a truth his, they had moved without his commands, induced by the natives of Churultecal, who bordered on two of his provinces, one of which was called Acancigo, and the other Izzucan. They said that there existed a certain alliance of neighbourhood between them, for helping each other, and it was thus they had come there, and not by his orders; but in the future I should learn from his deeds, that what he had told me was true, though he still besought me not to seek to come to his country, because it was sterile, and we would suffer privations, and that from wherever I might be, I could send to ask him for whatever I wanted, and he would send it very promptly. I answered that my visit to his country could not be renounced, because I would have to send a full account of him and of it to Your Majesty, and that I was persuaded of the truth of what