SECOND LETTER
Sent to his Sacred Majesty, the Emperor of Our Realm, by the Captain-General of New Spain, called Don Fernando Cortes, in which he gives an account of the countries and innumerable provinces which he has discovered in Yucatan, from the year 1519 to the present time, and has subjected to the Crown of His Royal Majesty. He makes special relation of a very great, and very rich, province called Culua, in which there are many great cities, and marvellous edifices, having much commerce and wealth. Amongst these there is one more marvellous and richer than all the others, called Temixtitan, which by marvellous art has been built on a great lake; of which city and province, a very great lord, called Montezuma, is king; in which, things, frightful to be heard, were suffered by the Captain, and the Spaniards. He describes at length the vast dominion of the said Montezuma, and its customs and ceremonies, and how he is served.
Very Great and Powerful, and Very Catholic Prince, Most Invincible Emperor, Our Lord. In a ship, which I despatched from this Your Sacred Majesty's New Spain, on the sixteenth of July 1519, I sent to Your Royal Highness a very long and particular account of everything which had happened from the time of my arrival here until that time; this said account was taken by Alonzo Hernandez Puertocarrero, and Francisco de Montejo, procurators of the Rica Villa de la Vera Cruz, which I had founded in the name of Your Royal Highness.
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