Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/339

 a Spaniard, who understood the language, and three Indians of Culua with him, to those towns which the settlers had mentioned to me, instructing the Spaniards and Indians very exactly what they were to say to the chiefs and natives of the said towns, and especially that I myself had come to those parts; for owing to the great traffic many people there had heard of me and of the events in Mexico. The first towns they visited were Chapagua and Papayeca, which are seven leagues from Trujillo, and two leagues distant from one another. They are the principal towns, as I afterwards learned, for Papayeca has eighteen villages subject to it, and Chapagua has ten; and Our Lord, Who our daily experience shows us has especial care of Your Majesty's affairs, was pleased that they should receive the embassy with great deference, and they sent with my messengers, others of their own who might verify if all they had been told was true. I received them very well upon their arrival, and again spoke to them through the interpreter whom I had with me; for their language and that of Culua is almost one and the same, except that they differ somewhat in pronunciation and in some few words. I again assured them of all that my messengers had told them in my name, adding other things which it seemed suitable they should know, and which tended to inspire their confidence; and I earnestly besought them to tell their chiefs to come to see me. They took leave of me entirely satisfied, and five days later a chief, called Montanal, came on behalf of those of Chapagua, he, himself, being as it appeared the chief of one of the subject towns, called Telika; and another lord of a subject town, called Cecoath, came on behalf of those of Papayeca, accompanied by some natives, who brought me provisions of maize and fowls and fruits, saying they had come on behalf of their chiefs to learn what I wished, and the reason of my coming to their country. The chiefs had not come in person to see