Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/37

 badly; and that, if they had done it from fear, they should realise that the Culuans were many, and had sufficient power to kill me and all the Spaniards and all the Indians of Tascaltecal, which indeed they would very soon accomplish; but that, if they had done it to save their lands, they should abandon them and come to Temixtitan, where they would receive larger and greater towns for their residence. The chiefs of Coatinchan and Guaxuta bound these messengers, and brought them to me; and they immediately confessed that they had come from the lords of Temixtitan, but that it had been to ask those chiefs to act as mediators, since they were my friends, in making peace between them and myself. But the men of Guaxuta and Coatinchan denied this saying, and added that the people of Mexico and Temixtitan desired nothing but war. Although I believed they spoke the truth, nevertheless, as I wished to entice the people of the great city into friendship with us, because on them depended peace or war with the other provinces which had revolted, I ordered those messengers to be liberated, and told them to have no fears, for I would send them again to Temixtitan. I prayed them to tell those lords that, although I had reason to do so, I did not want war with them, but rather to be friends as we had been before; and in order to assure them still more and to win them over to the service of Your Majesty, I sent them word that I well knew that the principal persons who had led them into the past war were already dead; that the past was the past, and that they ought not to provoke the destruction of their lands and cities, as I would be much distressed by it. With this I set the messengers free, and they went away, promising to bring me the answer. The lords of Coatinchan and Guaxuta and I remained better friends on account this good action than before, and I pardoned them their past errors and thus they left well satisfied.