Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/239

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215

contrary those who rebelled would be punished, according to justice.^[1]

The next day, almost all of the chiefs of that city came, and told me that, if they had not come before, it was because the people of this province
Embassy
from Cho-
lula Visits
Cortes
were their enemies, and that they did not dare to enter their country because they did not consider themselves safe; and that they were sure that they had told me some things respecting them, but I must not give any credence to them, because they spoke as enemies, and not according to facts. They said also that I should go to their city, where I would discover the falsehoods their enemies had been telling, and the truth of what they themselves assured me; and that from thenceforth they gave and acknowledged themselves as vassals of Your Sacred Majesty, and that they would always remain such, serving and contributing in everything as they were commanded on the part of

↑ Cortes's unfaltering conviction was that he was an instrument of divine justice, and he acted the part consistently, determined that others should so regard him. He started from the dogmatic assumption that the new world belonged to Spain by right of Pope Alexander's bull of donation; that its inhabitants were therefore just as much the lawful subjects of the Crown as were the natives of Castile, or Granada, and that for them to refuse obedience was rebellion. The native chiefs in resisting his pretentions, and defending their countries, became, according to his reasoning, instigators of revolt and must be dealt with as such. Most of all, the people were practisers of idolatry, in peril of eternal damnation, whom it was a chief part of his mission to rescue, and bring into the knowledge of the Faith. He held himself to be merciful, in that he invariably invited their obedience, by explaining what a privilege it was to be ruled by such a mighty sovereign as the Emperor, and sought to effect their conversion by expounding the doctrines of the Catholic religion. Once this choice was put plainly before them, and they had refused to accept the dual blessings of vassalage and conversion, they became in his eyes contumacious rebels, and conscious heretics. He had the Spanish XVI. century standards as to how all such were to be treated. He followed, in this case, the usual solemn formality of causing a letter to be drawn up by a notary; that the Cholulan priests could not understand a word of it did not detract from the validity of the proceeding.

[1] Cortes's unfaltering conviction was that he was an instrument of divine justice, and he acted the part consistently, determined that others should so regard him. He started from the dogmatic assumption that the new world belonged to Spain by right of Pope Alexander's bull of donation; that its inhabitants were therefore just as much the lawful subjects of the Crown as were the natives of Castile, or Granada, and that for them to refuse obedience was rebellion. The native chiefs in resisting his pretentions, and defending their countries, became, according to his reasoning, instigators of revolt and must be dealt with as such. Most of all, the people were practisers of idolatry, in peril of eternal damnation, whom it was a chief part of his mission to rescue, and bring into the knowledge of the Faith. He held himself to be merciful, in that he invariably invited their obedience, by explaining what a privilege it was to be ruled by such a mighty sovereign as the Emperor, and sought to effect their conversion by expounding the doctrines of the Catholic religion. Once this choice was put plainly before them, and they had refused to accept the dual blessings of vassalage and conversion, they became in his eyes contumacious rebels, and conscious heretics. He had the Spanish XVI. century standards as to how all such were to be treated. He followed, in this case, the usual solemn formality of causing a letter to be drawn up by a notary; that the Cholulan priests could not understand a word of it did not detract from the validity of the proceeding.

[1]