Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/293

Rh assisted, with as much good will and satisfaction on the part of Montezuma and the natives, as if they, ab initio, had recognised Your Sacred Majesty as their king and rightful sovereign; and with no less good will have they done all I commanded them in your royal name. In all these things mentioned, and in others no less useful to the service of Your Highness, I spent from the eighth of November, 15 19, to the beginning of May this present year.

While all was quiet and tranquil in this city, and many Spaniards were distributed through divers parts, pacifying the people in the country, I greatly  News of the Arrival of Narvaez desired that ships might arrive, with the answer to the account I had sent to Your Majesty, so that I might forward what I now send, together with all the gold and jewels I had collected for Your Highness. At that time there came certain natives, vassals of Montezuma, who live on the coast, telling me that, near the mountain chain of San Martin, which is on the said coast, before reaching the port and bay of San Juan, eighteen ships had arrived; and that they did not know whose they were, because, as soon as they espied them on the sea, they came to let me know. Following the said Indians, there came also a native of the island of Fernandina, who brought me a letter from a Spaniard, whom I had stationed on the coast. This I had done that he might give information about me, and about that town near the port, to any ships that might arrive, so that they might not be lost. In this letter he said that, "on such a day, a single ship had arrived off the harbour of San Juan," and that he had examined all the coast as far as the eye could reach, but had discovered no other, and therefore believed it to be the ship I had sent to Your Majesty, since it was time for this to return. In order to satisfy himself more fully, he said that he would stay, waiting for the arrival of