Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/362

 to be obeyed and complied with in all respects, and by everyone, according as Your Sacred Majesty was pleased to order. The municipal officers delivered their wands into his hands, and all the other ceremonies were complied with, as Your Majesty will see by the official acts drawn by the notary public of the municipal council, in whose presence everything was executed. The public crier announced in the square of the city the investigations which Luis Ponce had come to institute, but during seventeen days no one presented any complaint against me. About this time, the said judge Luis Ponce fell ill, as did also those who had come with him in his armada, and, the disease increasing, it was God's pleasure that he should die of it, as did also thirty others, amongst whom were two monks of the order of St. Dominic; moreover, even at this time there are still many persons ill and in danger of death; for the disease they brought with them in that armada seemed almost to be a plague, as even some who reside here took the contagion and two of them died, while others are still in a convalescent state.

Immediately after the death of Luis Ponce, his funeral was celebrated with all the honour due to a person of his authority sent by Your Majesty. I was then earnestly requested by the Municipal Corporation of this city as well as by the Procurators of all the towns who had assembled here, to take charge of the government, in the name of Your Catholic Majesty, and to carry on the administration of justice conceded me by Your Majesty's order and by Your Royal Provisions, giving their reasons therefor, and explaining the evils which would follow in case I would not accept it, as Your Majesty may see by the report of these proceedings which will accompany this letter. I sought to excuse myself from this, as will appear by the said copy, but other requirements have since been made of me in the same sense, pointing out