Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/249

Rh While going to see this mountain, they came upon a road, and asked the natives who went with them whither it lead; and these answered to Culua, and that it was a good road, and that the other by which the Culuans wished to take us was not good. The Spaniards followed it until they reached the top of the Sierras, between which the road passes, and from there they beheld the plains of Culua, and the city of Temixtitan, and the lakes which are in the said province, of which I will hereafter make relation to Your Highness. They came back very glad at having discovered so good a road, and God knows how happy I was about it.

After these Spaniards, who had gone to visit the mountains, returned, and I had informed myself accurately, not only from them, but also from the natives, respecting the road which they had discovered, I spoke to those messengers of Montezuma who were to guide me to his country, and told them, as it was shorter that I wished to go by that road, instead of the one they had proposed. They answered that I said truly that it was shorter, and more level, and the reason they had not suggested it, was because by it we should have to pass one or two days' journey through the country of Guasucingo, whose people were their enemies, and therefore we would not find all the necessaries, as when going through the land of Montezuma; but, if I wished to go that way, they would arrange that provisions should be brought up to the road from the other side.

So we started, with some fears that those people might persist in playing some trick upon us, but as we had already  Departure from Cholula announced that we would take that road, it did not seem well to me to leave it, and to change, lest they might suspect a want of courage had caused it. The