Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/270

246 up from its mouth. On its banks, are many large towns, with an innumerable population, and all the province is level, and rich and abundant in produce. The people of this province are not vassals or subjects of Montezuma, but rather his enemies. The lord of it sent word, when the Spaniards arrived, that the Culuans must not enter his country because they were his enemies, but, when the Spaniards returned home with this account, he sent certain messengers with them, who brought me valuables of gold, tiger-skins, feather-work, stones, and stuffs. These told me, on his part, that Tuchintecla had known of us for a long time, because his friends of Puntunchan (which is the river of Grijalba), had told him that I had passed there, and had fought with them when they did not admit me to their town, and how afterwards they became friends of mine, and vassals of Your Majesty. The messengers said that Tuchintecla, likewise, offered himself to Your Royal Highness, with all his country, and he prayed me to consider him as my friend, on conditions that the Culuans should not enter his country, though I might see everything in it, which might be useful to Your Royal Highness, of which he would give whatever I might direct every year.

When I learned, from the Spaniards who visited that province, of its adaptability for settlement, and of the harbour they had found, I rejoiced greatly; for, ever since I came to this country, I have sought to find a harbour on its coast, where I might found a settlement. I had never succeeded, however; nor is one to be found on the whole coast, from the river of San Antonio, which is next the Grijalba to that of Panuco which is down the coast, where certain Spaniards settled by order of Francisco de Garay, as I shall hereafter recount to Your Highness.

To assure myself still more about that province and harbour, and of the good will of the natives, and of everything else necessary for a settlement, I again sent certain