Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/275

Rh. Thus it was done thenceforward, and all obeyed and served him as lord, the same as the said Cacamazin; and he was obedient in everything I commanded in Your Majesty's name.

A few days after the imprisonment of Cacamazin, Montezuma held a meeting of all the lords of the city and the neighbouring countries; and, when speech of all were assembled, he sent to ask me to  Speech of Montezuma to His Nobles join them, and, when I arrived, he spoke in this manner: "My brothers and friends, you know that, for a long time you, and your fathers, and grandfathers, have been, and are, subjects and vassals of my forefathers and myself, and that you have always been well treated by them, and by me, and that you have likewise done what good subjects are obliged to do towards their rightful sovereign. I also believe that you have kept in mind, from your forefathers, that we are not natives of this country, and that they came to it from another, very far off, that they were brought here by a sovereign, whose vassals they all were, who left them in it, but who returned after a long time; that he found our forefathers already settled and established in this country, and married to the women, and having a great increase of sons, so that they did not choose to return with him, nor much less to receive him as their sovereign; and that he departed, saying that he would return, or send such a force that they would be compelled to submit. You also know, that we have always expected him, and, according to what the Captain has told us of that King and Lord who has sent him here, and according to the direction whence he says he comes, I hold it to be certain, and you must also hold it thus, that his sovereign is the one we have been expecting especially as the Captain says that they have had information there respecting us.

"Since our predecessors did not act justly towards