Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/268

244 where they took out gold; and in their presence the Indians took some, out of which they brought ine specimens. Coatelicamat sent ne certain messengers with the Spaniards, offering himself and his country for the service of Your Majesty; and he sent me certain valuables of gold, and such wearing apparel as they have.

The others went to another province, called Tuchitepeque, which is almost in a direct line towards the sea, twelve beyon the province of Malinaltepeque where, as I have already said, gold had been found. Two other rivers were shown them there, where gold is also found.

As there is in those parts, according to what the Spaniards who went there informed me, every facility for making plantations, and procuring gold, I begged Montezuma to establish a plantation for Your Majesty in that province of Malinaltepeque, which seems the best adapted, and he put such diligence into it, that, within two months after I had spoken to him, sixty fanegas of maize, and ten of beans had been sown, and two thousand plants of cacap, which bears a fruit somewhat like almonds. This fruit they sell ground, and esteem so highly, that it is used instead of money all over the country, and with it everything can be bought in the market places and elsewhere. He built four good houses, in one of which, besides the living apartments, they made a water tank, and put five hundred ducks in it; these are much esteemed, because they pluck their feathers every year, and use them for making wearing apparel. And they placed fifteen hundred chickens in it, not to speak of other farm stock, which the Spaniards judged to be worth twenty thousand dollars of gold. I also prayed Montezuma to tell me if on the sea-coast there was any river or bay