Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/206

 to stop there and others had gone off, and also to supply him with provisions for the ships and people of which he stood in need. The alcalde mayor immediately provided everything he asked, and it was published by the public crier, in the port where most of the people of both sides were staying, that all persons who had come in the armada of the adelantado, Francisco de Garay, should join him under penalty that, whoever did not, if he were a horseman, he should lose his arms and horse and be imprisoned by the adelantado, and if a foot soldier, he should receive one hundred stripes and likewise be imprisoned.

The adelantado likewise asked the alcalde mayor that, inasmuch as some of his people had sold their arms and  Difficulties of Francisco de Garay horses in the Port Santistevan, and in the port where they stopped, and elsewhere in the neighbourhood, they might be returned to him, because without arms and horses his people would be of no use; the alcalde mayor ordered the horses and arms to be taken wherever they might be found and to be returned to the adelantado. The alcalde mayor also sent out and seized all those who had deserted, and many were thus captured and brought in. He also sent the alguacil mayor of Santistevan, with a secretary of mine, to ensure in that town and port, the same diligence in proclaiming by the public crier and capturing deserters and in collecting all the provisions possible for the ships of the adelantado; besides which he ordered the arms and horses which had been sold there also to be taken and brought back to the adelantado. All this was done with great diligence, and the adelantado left for the port to embark, while the alcalde mayor remained behind with his people so as not to make too great demands on the supplies of the port, and in order to provide the better for everything; and he stopped there six or seven days to see that all I had ordered was executed.