Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/252

228 At daybreak I set out for a town, called Amaqueruca, which is two leagues from here, in the province of Chalco, which in its principal town, and the  Cortes Descends into the Val- ley of Mexico villages within two leagues of it, has some twenty thousand inhabitants. We were lodged in some very good houses, belonging to the chief of the said town, and many persons who seemed to be of high rank came to speak to me, telling me that Montezuma, their sovereign lord, had sent them to await me here, and to see that I was provided with everything necessary. The lord of this place gave me some forty female slaves, and three thousand castellanos. During the two days I was there, they provided us amply with all necessary food.

The next day, accompanied by those chiefs who had come on the part of Montezuma to wait for me, I left, and slept four leagues farther on, in a small town, almost half of it on the water of a great lake, where they lodged us very well; and on the land side there is a chain of very rugged and stony mountains. Here likewise they would have been very willing to try their forces with us, except, as it appeared, they wanted to do so with safety, and by surprising us in the night. But, as I was so well informed, I anticipated their intention, and kept such a guard that night, that of their spies who came, some in canoes by water, and others by descending from the mountains, to see if there was any possibility of carrying out their wishes, some fifteen or twenty were taken by our men, and killed. Thus, few returned to give the information they had come to secure; and finding us always so well prepared they decided to change their tactics, and treat us well.

The next morning, just as I was ready to leave the town, there arrived some ten or twelve chiefs, as I learned