t for the chiefs and caziques of
the Sempoallans. In fear and anxiety had they passed the while, in
consequence of his anger for having attempted to deceive us with a pack
of lies. He brought about a reconciliation and good understanding
between them and the inhabitants of Tzinpantzinco, which was never
afterwards interrupted. Upon this we again put ourselves in motion, and
marched back to Sempoalla, but took a different route over two townships
friendly with the Tzinpantzincans, where we rested ourselves, as we were
greatly fatigued, and the sun was excessively hot. In one of these
townships, a certain Mora, of Ciudad-Rodrigo, took some fowls out of an
Indian hut, which so greatly incensed Cortes that he ordered a rope to
be tied around the fellow's neck, and would have had him hung up if
Alvarado, who was standing next to Cortes, had not cut the rope in two
with his sword, and thus released the poor devil, who had the fear of
death before his eyes.

I have merely mentioned this trait to convince the curious reader how
exemplary Cortes acted, and of the necessity of being strict under
similar circumstances. Mora subsequently lost his life in a battle we
fought on a mountain in the province of Guatimala. After we had left
these two townships in peace, we found the fat cazique with the chiefs
of Sempoalla in some huts which they had constructed for us, where they
were waiting our arrival with various kinds of provisions which they had
brought with them. Although Indians, they readily perceived what a good
and holy thing is justice, and that Cortes' declaration of our having
come into these countries to put an end to all oppression, perfectly
agreed with his conduct on our entry into Tzinpantzinco; they,
therefore, became the more united to us. We passed the night in these
huts, and returned next morning, in company of our Indian friends, to
Sempoalla. Indeed, the only wish of the Sempoallans was now, that we
should never leave their country again, fearing Motecusuma would send an
army about their ears; they, therefore, proposed to Cortes, since such a
close and friendly alliance now subsisted between us, and we could look
upon each other as brothers, that we should choose wives from among
their daughters and relatives, that our posterity might descend from one
and the same stock. In order that this more intimate connexion might be
brought about, they immediately made a good beginning by presenting us
with eight females,