Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/120

90 and a few other trifles we had brought from Spain, and was telling them of our religion and our king, as we were constantly doing wherever we came, and while they were bringing us fowls and maize bread, it was announced that the fat cacique of Cempoala was approaching, borne in a litter on the shoulders of Indian chiefs. When he arrived, the fat cacique, together with the chief men of the town, rehearsed to Cortes the cruelties and oppressions they had to suffer, and they spoke with such sighs and sobs that we could not but feel pity. Telling how they had been subdued and in many ways sadly ill-used, they also related how every year their conquerors demanded many of their sons and daughters for sacrifices and to serve in houses and plantations, and how Montezuma's tax collectors carried off their wives and daughters, if they were handsome. This the victors did, they asserted, throughout the Totonac country of over thirty towns.

As well as he could by means of our interpreters, Cortes consoled them and promised he would put an end to such horrors; our king had sent us to their country for that purpose and they should soon see what we would do for their good. This assurance seemed to give them relief, if not wholly to lighten their hearts.

While this discussion was going on Indians came to tell the caciques that five Mexican tax collectors