it please you to accept of the present we have here
brought you, and from this moment we hope you will look upon us as your
friends!"

Cortes received it with every appearance of delight, and promised to
assist them whenever they might require his aid. While we were thus
standing around him, he desired father Olmedo to give them some notion
of the Christian religion, and to admonish them to abolish their
idol-worship, with which the father complied, and made similar
disclosures to them as we had done to the inhabitants of the other
townships we had visited. They acknowledged that all was very good which
he told them, and that they would consider that matter more maturely at
some future period. We likewise spoke to them about the vast power of
our emperor, and how he had sent us to this country to put an end to all
robbery and oppression.

We had scarcely touched this string when they began to throw out bitter
accusations against Motecusuma and his tax-gatherers, but out of the
hearing of the Mexican ambassadors. The Mexicans, they said, robbed them
of everything they possessed; abused the chastity of their wives and
daughters, before their eyes, if they were handsome, and carried them
forcibly away to toil hard in base servitude. They themselves were
compelled to transport wood, stones, and maise, both by water and by
land, to the monarch's extensive maise plantations, and to relinquish
the produce of their own land for the maintenance of the great temple:
in short, their complaints knew no end, and, owing to the many years
which have since elapsed, I cannot now remember them all.

Cortes, in the most affectionate manner, gave them every consolation in
his power, which Dona Marina interpreted to them exceedingly well,
adding, however, that, at present, our general could not redress their
wrongs. They would have to bear with these hardships for some time yet,
when they would certainly be released from this state of oppression. He
then requested two of their principal personages to repair in all
secrecy, with four of our friends from Tlascalla, to the spot where the
other road had been intersected, mentioned by the inhabitants of
Huexotzinco, to ascertain how matters stood, and if any troops were
stationed there. But the caziques assured our general that it was not
necessary to repair thither for that purpose, as all the palisades had
been taken away, and the hole filled up again. The Mexicans had, indeed,
cut through