Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/359

 body of people, on foot and on horseback, all in good order and showing the same signs of good will as all the others; so I went directly to the church and monastery of St. Francis, to return thanks to Our Lord, Who had delivered me from such and so great perils and troubles, bringing me again to repose in peace, and to find a country which had been torn by such commotions in a state of tranquillity and peace.

I remained for six days with the monks to give an account of my sins to God. Two days before I left the convent, a messenger arrived from the town of Medellin, announcing the arrival at that port of certain vessels, in one of which it was reported there came by order of Your Majesty a judge of inquiry. Only the bare fact was known, but I believed that Your Majesty, having heard of the tumults and commotions into which Your Highness's officials had plunged this country which I had left in their charge, and not being sure of my return to it, had ordered the situation to be provided for. God knows how much I rejoiced, as it would have given me much pain to act as judge in this cause, for I had myself been so much injured and ill-treated, and my property so destroyed by these tyrants, that any judgment of mine might have been suspected of proceeding from passion, though indeed no sentence of mine would have exceeded the severity their faults merited. I therefore despatched a messenger in all haste to the port of Medellin, to ascertain with certainty, sending an order also to the Lieutenant of Justice of the said town that Your Majesty's judge should be well received and honoured and lodged in a house which I owned there, and that he, and all who accompanied him, should receive every attention; although as it afterwards appeared he would accept nothing.