Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/335

Rh set them free and satisfied them, protesting that I believed them loyal vassals of Your Sacred Majesty, and that I would go myself to destroy the Culuans. To avoid showing any timidity or hesitancy to the natives, both friends and enemies, it seemed that I ought not to abandon the proposed expedition. To relieve the fears of some of the Spaniards, I determined to suspend other business, and the dispatch for Your Majesty which I was writing, and thus I set out that same hour with all possible haste, arriving the same day at the city of Churultecal (which is eight leagues from this city) where I found the Spaniards, who still affirmed their conviction of the treachery.

The next day, I slept in the town of Quasucingo, where the chiefs had been arrested. Having agreed with the messengers of Guacachula as to where and how we should enter their city, I started the next day, one hour before daybreak, arriving near it about ten o'clock in the morning. About half a league distant from it, certain messengers of the city met me on the road to tell me that everything was well planned and ready, and that the Culuans knew nothing of our coming, because the natives of the said city had captured certain of their spies, who were on the road, and also some others whom the Culuan captains had stationed on the walls and towers of the city to overlook the country. All our adversaries were thus off their guard, believing they were protected by their watchmen and spies; hence I might advance undiscovered. I therefore made haste to reach the city unseen, for we were marching over a plain where we might easily be observed.

It appeared that as soon as the townspeople perceived us, and saw how near we were, they immediately surrounded the quarters of the captains, and began to attack the others scattered throughout the city. When