rteguilla
informs me that you are about to march against your brothers who have
just arrived, and that you are going to leave Tonatio (so Alvarado was
termed by the Mexicans) behind, to guard my person. Do tell me if there
is any truth in all this? for if, in any way, I can be of service to you
in this matter, it will be a great pleasure to me. I have great fears of
your success, for your teules are too few in numbers in comparison to
those just arrived. They have five times the number of troops you have;
they also, as well as yourself, maintain to be Christians, and subjects
of your emperor; they pay homage to the same image and cross, read the
mass as you do, and everywhere spread the rumour that you have fled away
from Spain from your emperor, and that he has sent them to take you back
again, or put you to death. Really I scarcely know what to think of all
this: one thing, however, I must tell you, to use great circumspection
in what you are about to do."

In reply to this, Cortes told the monarch, with the most cheerful
countenance in the world, that he had studiously avoided mentioning
anything of all this up to the present moment, from his great affection
towards him, to spare him the anxiety he would feel on our account. It
was very true, the newly arrived teules were also subjects of our
emperor, and Christians; but it was a falsehood to assert that we had
fled away from the territory of our emperor. On the contrary, our great
monarch had expressly sent us out to visit him, Motecusuma, and make
those disclosures to him, in his imperial name, which Motecusuma had
heard. With regard to the numbers of those just arrived, we felt quite
unconcerned, however great they might be in comparison to ours, as our
Lord Jesus Christ and his blessed mother would lend us strength, and
clothe us with superior power to those bad men who came with such evil
designs. His emperor, continued Cortes, swayed the sceptre over so many
countries and kingdoms, that the people who inhabited them were of
various kinds, and differed in courage and manly spirit. We were born
in the heart of Spain, which was termed Old Castile, and therefore bore
the additional name of Castilians; those, on the other hand, who were
now quartered at Sempoalla, came from another province called Biscay,
where the inhabitants spoke a perfectly spurious language, in the same
way as the Otomies do in Mexico. He need be in no apprehension about us,
but might depend up