Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/190

 themselves for those murders, saying that they had acted thus because they knew those men were not under my command, and because they had been ill-treated by them; but that, if I wished to send my people there, they would esteem it a great favour and would serve them the best they could, and would thank me very much, because they feared that the others with whom they had fought might return against them and take vengeance, and also because they had hostile neighbours who molested them, whereas if I sent Spaniards there they would be protected. I was short of people when they came so I was unable to comply, but I promised I would do so as soon as possible; and thus satisfied them so that ten or twelve towns in that neighbourhood offered themselves as vassals of Your Majesty. A few days afterwards, they again returned, and besought me most earnestly to send some Spaniards to settle there, as I had done in other places, because they were much molested by their foes and others of their own nation who lived along the seacoast, because they were our friends. To comply with this, and for the purpose of making a settlement in their country, and also because I had then received reinforcements, I sent a captain with certain companions to the said river, but just as they were leaving I learned by a ship that had arrived from Cuba how the Admiral Don Diego Colon and the adelantados, Diego Velasquez and Francisco de Garay, had agreed amongst themselves to go there with the hostile intention of doing me all the mischief they could. To forestall the effects of their evil intentions, and to prevent a disturbance and trouble arising from their going similar to what had occurred on the arrival of Narvaez, I determined to go myself, leaving