t courageously night
and day at Tabasco, Tlascalla, Zinpantzinco, and Cholulla; we who at
present live in continual fear, with almost certain death before our
eyes as soon as the inhabitants of this great city get it into their
heads to rise up against us,--we all remain, as before,
poverty-stricken, and all our remonstrances are in vain! Cortes, on the
contrary, acts as if he were the emperor himself, and runs away with a
fifth of our hard earnings!"

In this strain the poor fellow continued his complaints, and was of
opinion that we should not have allowed Cortes to deduct a fifth for
himself; and that we required no other sovereign than our own emperor.

"And are you really," returned the other, "going to embitter your
happiness with such thoughts? All this will avail you nothing. You know
we fare equally bad with respect to provisions, for Cortes and his
officers nearly eat up all themselves; but it is of no use for us to
complain, therefore drive away, all such melancholy thoughts from your
mind, and pray to the Almighty that we may not meet with our total
destruction in this city."

Cortes was duly apprized of all this and similar complaints; and as the
discontent among the men respecting the unfair division of the gold
became pretty general, he ordered the whole of us into his presence, and
addressed us in a speech abounding with the sweetest sentences
imaginable. He was indebted, he said, for all he had to us; that he had
not required the fifth part, but the share which was promised him when
we elected him captain-general, and he was quite ready to bestow
something on those who stood in need. The gold we had collected up to
this moment, he continued, was a trifle to that which was to come. We
ought to remember what great cities were dispersed through the country,
and the rich mines which were in our possession; these certainly would
enrich every man in his army. In this way he continued for some time,
and spoke feelingly to the heart! but, finding all this had no effect,
he employed other means. Many he secretly silenced with gold, and others
by great promises, and the provisions sent us by Motecusuma's orders
were from this moment justly divided, so that every man among us had an
equal share of food with himself. He likewise took Cardenas aside, and
quieted him with a present of 300 pesos, and the promise that he would
allow him to return home to his family with the first vessel that left
for Spain. This Car