Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/166

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146

Letters of Cortes

jesty, I was not willing to proceed rigorously against them; this dissimulation has not produced much advantage, because since then some partisans of Diego Velasquez have started many intrigues, and have secretly created many seditions and scandals, in which it has been necessary for me to be more on my guard against them than against our enemies. But God, Our Lord, has always conducted everything in such a manner, that, without executing any punishment on them, there has been, and exists, peace and tranquillity; and if from henceforth I should discover anything else it shall be punished as justice dictates.

After the city of Temixtitan was captured, and while we were in Cuyoacan, Don Fernando, the lord of Tesaico died, which much grieved us all because he was a good vassal of Your Majesty and a great friend of the Christians; and with the approval of the chiefs and the notables of that city and of his province the lordship was given in the name of Your Majesty to a younger brother, who was baptised and took the name of Don Carlos,^[1] and as far as we know he has followed until now in the footsteps of his brother, and seems much pleased with our habits and conversation. I made known to Your Majesty in the other account how there was a very high and conical mountain near the provinces of Tascaltecal and Guaxocingo, from which much smoke almost constantly issued, ascending straight like an arrow.^[2] As the Indians gave us to understand that it was a very fearful thing to ascend it, and that

↑ This is an error; after Don Fernando's death, the young prince Ahuaxpitzcatzin, an illegitimate son of Nezahualpilli, who had received the name of Carlos upon his baptism as a Christian, was chosen King, but Cortes had refused to recognise the election, and had prevailed on the electors to annul it in favour of his ally, the ambitious Ixtlilxochitl, whose Christian name was also Don Fernando. The confusion of the two Fernandos, Kings of Texcoco has already been noticed.
↑ The volcano of Orizaba which was mentioned in the First Letter. The Indian name was Citlatepetl, meaning Star Mountain. Humboldt gives the height as 17,368 feet; the crater is now extinct.

[1] This is an error; after Don Fernando's death, the young prince Ahuaxpitzcatzin, an illegitimate son of Nezahualpilli, who had received the name of Carlos upon his baptism as a Christian, was chosen King, but Cortes had refused to recognise the election, and had prevailed on the electors to annul it in favour of his ally, the ambitious Ixtlilxochitl, whose Christian name was also Don Fernando. The confusion of the two Fernandos, Kings of Texcoco has already been noticed.

[2] The volcano of Orizaba which was mentioned in the First Letter. The Indian name was Citlatepetl, meaning Star Mountain. Humboldt gives the height as 17,368 feet; the crater is now extinct.

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