Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/308

284 Narvaez would have fulfilled his intention, as Diego Velasquez commanded him, which was to hang me, and many others of my company, so that no one should recount what had happened. And, according to what I learn from the Indians, they had perceived, that, if Narvaez were to capture me, as he had told them, it could not be without loss to himself and his people, nor without many of us perishing; so that they meanwhile could kill those whom I had left in Temixtitan, which, indeed, they attempted to do. Afterwards they intended to join forces, and attack those who remained here, and free their country, so that not even a memory of the Spaniards should survive. Your Highness may be assured that if they had achieved all this, and succeeded in their designs, this country, which has now been conquered and pacified, would not have been recovered within twenty years.

As so many people could not be maintained together in this city, both because of its being nearly destroyed, and because it had been plundered by Narvaez, and abandoned by its inhabitants, two days after Narvaez had been taken prisoner, I sent two captains, with two hundred men each, one to go to the town and port of Cucicacalco, which as I have told Your Highness, I had founded, and the other to that river which the people from Francisco de Garay's ships said they had seen, for I now hold them securely. I likewise sent two hundred other men to the city of Vera Cruz, where I ordered Narvaez's ships to go. I remained with the rest of the people in Cempoal, to provide whatever Your Majesty's service required. I also sent a messenger to the city of Temixtitan, by whom I made known to the Spaniards I left there what had happened to me. These messengers returned within twelve days, bringing me letters from the alcalde there, telling me that the