Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/205

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Third Letter
185

Fourth Letter 185 lieutenant was the justice of that province for Your Majesty, and the said Captain Grijalba knew, that neither the Governor, Francisco de Garay, nor he himself had presented any royal provisions which the lieutenant and inhabitants of Santistevan were bound to obey, and that it was a very ugly thing to act in this way; for they were behaving like pirates in Your Majesty's dominions. Convinced by these reasons, Captain Grijalba, and the captains and masters of the other ships, obeyed the lieutenant and went up the river to where ships usually anchored.

Upon arriving at the port, the lieutenant ordered the said Juan de Grijalba to be imprisoned for the disobedience he had shown to his mandates but when this

Juan de
Grijalba
Imprisoned
imprisonment became known to him, the alcalde mayor immediately ordered the said Juan Grijalba to be set free the next day and that he and all the others should be treated kindly; and thus it was done. In like manner, the said alcalde mayor wrote to Francisco de Garay, who was in another port ten or twelve leagues further South, telling him that I was unable to come and see him but that I had sent him with my power of attorney to come to some agreement and exhibit our provisions on one side and on the other so as to decide what might best advance Your Majesty's service. As soon as Francisco de Garay saw the letter of the alcalde mayor he came to meet him and was very well received, and his people were provided with all necessaries. At this meeting, after having discussed and seen the provisions and the cedula which Your Majesty had so graciously sent me, the said adelantado obeyed it, and declared that in compliance with it, he, with his people, would retire to his ships and go to settle in some other country beyond the boundaries designated in Your Majesty's cedula: and since I wished to assist him, he besought the alcalde mayor to collect all his people, for many of them wished