Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/341

Rh my presence they gave obedience to that boy, who was about ten years old; and, not being of an age to govern them, they decided that the bastard uncle should act with three other chiefs, one of Guacachula, and two of Izzucan, who should be governors of the country and should have control of the boy until he should be of an age to rule.

This city of Izzucan may have some three or four thousand households, and its streets and markets are well laid out. It has one hundred mosques and strong oratories with their towers, all of which we burnt. It stands on a plain at the foot of a medium-sized hill, where they have a very good fort, and, on the other side towards the plain, it is surrounded by a deep river which flows near the wall, which is thus surrounded by the deep ravine of the river. Over the ravine they have made a battlement, about six feet in height, which extends all round the city, and all along the wall they had placed many stones. The valley is circular, and very fertile in fruits and cotton, which latter is not produced on the heights because of the cold, and it belongs to tierra caliente because it is well protected by the mountain ranges. The whole valley is irrigated by well constructed aqueducts.

I remained in this city until I could leave it well peopled and pacified. There likewise came to it, to offer themsevles as vassals of Your Majesty the chief of the city called Guajocingo, and the lord of another city, ten leagues distant from that of Izzucan, on the frontier of Mexico. There came also people from eight of the towns of the province of Coastoaca. This is one of those mentioned in previous chapters, where the Spaniards, whom I had sent to seek gold in the provinces of Zuzula\ and Tamazula (for they joined each other) had said that there because he was a bastard. Thus it was settled, and in