Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/154

 friends, and, besides it being necessary to correct this evil, it was well to secure that province of Guaxacaque, because it was on the road to the South Sea, and to pacify it would be very advantageous as well for the aforesaid as for other reasons, which I will hereafter state to Your Majesty. The said lieutenant told me that he had privately received information respecting that province, and that we could subjugate it with a small force, because, while I was in the camp against Temixtitan, he had gone there, as those of Tepeaca had urged him to make war upon the natives of it, but, not having taken more than twenty or thirty Spaniards they had forced him to return, less leisurely than he would have wished. Having heard his relation I gave him twelve horsemen and eight Spaniards, and the said alguacil mayor and the lieutenant left this city of Guaxacaque on the 15th October, 1521.

When they reached the province of Tepeaca, they there made their review, and each departed on his conquest. The alguacil mayor wrote to me five days later that he had arrived at the province of Guatuxco, and that, although he had much apprehension that he would find himself in straits with the enemy as they were very skilful in war and had many forces in the country, it had pleased Our Lord that he should be received peaceably; and that, although he had not reached the other provinces he felt sure that all the natives of them would offer themselves as vassals of Your Majesty. Fifteen days later, other letters of his arrived in which he reported to me that he had advanced, and that the whole of the country was already at peace, and that it seemed to him it would be well to settle in the most accessible parts and thus make sure of it, as we had already discussed many times before, and for me to decide what should be done in the matter. I wrote, thanking him very much for what he had done on his expedition in the service of Your Majesty, telling him that all he reported about settling