Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/105

 I was pleased with this and harboured no anger against any except those of the city; and that we might believe their friendship sincere, I prayed them, that inasmuch as I was determined not to raise the siege till I had taken the city by peace or war, and as they had many canoes capable of aiding me, they should prepare everything they could with as many warriors as were in their towns, to henceforward aid us on the water. I also prayed them that inasmuch as the Spaniards had few and miserable huts, and it was the rainy season, to build us as many houses in the camp as they could, and to bring adobes and beams from the houses of the city which were nearest to the camp. They answered that the canoes and warriors were prepared every day, and they served me so well in building the houses, that, between the two towers on the one side and the other and the causeway where I was lodged, they built so many that from the first house to the last, there was a distance of three or four bowshots. Your Majesty may see how broad is this causeway, which crosses the deepest part of the lake, from the fact that between these houses, built on both sides, there was