Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/355

 by the expeditions sent there from the Islands to capture its natives and make slaves of them. But some of the inhabitants had survived, and I recently learned in the islands of Cuba and Jamaica that an expedition had just been fitted out to complete the devastation, by carrying away the remainder; so I sent a caravel to stop the armada amongst the said islands, and to enjoin, on the part of Your Majesty, that no sort of injury should be done to the natives, for I intended to pacify them, and bring them to Your Majesty's service, as I had heard from some who were settled on the mainland of their peaceable dispositions. This caravel encountered at one of the islands, called Huititla, another caravel, of which Rodrigo de Merlo was captain. My captain found means to bring him to me with all the natives he had captured in that island. I immediately sent the natives back to their homes, and did not proceed against the captain, for he showed me the written permission he had from the governor of Cuba, with a proper authorisation from the judges residing in the island of Española. I, therefore, dismissed him and his people with no other punishment than that of liberating the captives he had brought from the said Islands; but the captain and most of his company liked the country so much, they remained with us as settlers in those towns.

The chiefs of those Islands recognised the kindness they had received from me, and, having learned from their countrymen who had settled on the mainland, what good treatment I gave them, came to thank me for the benefits I had extended to them, offering themselves as subjects and vassals of Your Highness, and asking me to show them how they could serve; so I ordered them, in Your Majesty's name, that, for the present, they should cultivate the fields in their country, because in truth they are good for nothing else. So they went away carrying for