Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/336

, and that, on his return to Española he would even obtain orders from the judges residing there that we should not have to pay for anything, and that, besides, reinforcements of men and horses and supplies of arms and provisions and other necessaries should be sent to us; that the bachelor would quickly return, bringing us all this and full powers from the judges to be our captain. Having asked him what we were required to do in return, he answered that first of all we were to depose from their respective charges the royal officers, the alcaldes, the municipal officials, the treasurer, the accountants, and the inspector, all of whom exercised their functions in the name of your worship; that after this, we must ask the said bachelor to appoint as our captain the said Juan Ruano, and declare that we wished to come under the government of the audiencia instead of under that of your worship; that we must all sign this petition and give our oaths to obey him, Ruano, as our captain, binding ourselves not only to refuse obedience to any representations or orders of your worship but also to resist with force of arms. We answered that we could not do this, for we had already taken another oath, and were settled there for your worship, in His Majesty's name, as his captain and governor, and that we could not act otherwise.

The said Juan Ruano sought to persuade us that it was better to consent than to be left to die; for the bachelor would not give us a jar of water, nor a morsel of bread, and we might rest assured that upon, learning of our refusal, he would sail away and leave us to destruction, hence we should look well to our decision. Thus we took council, and, coerced by want we agreed to all he asked of us, rather than starve or be killed by the Indians, being, as we were, entirely unarmed; so we answered Ruano that we had decided to do what he required of us. He returned therefore to the caravel, and the said bachelor landed, with many armed people; and Juan Ruano had a petition drawn up before the notary of the place, signed by almost every one of us, under oath, to the effect that the municipal officials, the treasurer, the accountant, and the inspector, resigned their respective offices, and that the name of the town was changed to that of Ascension; he drew up