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All thefe being laid before Cortes, the ambaffadors made a fpeech, 

 wherein they told him that with the fame good will that their monarch 

 fent the prefent, it was hoped he would receive it, and divide it as he 

 thought beft among the Teules with him. They alfo communicated to 

 him a melTage from the great Montezuma to this ejffedi; " That he re- 

 *' joiced in the arrival of fuch brave men in his country as the accounts 

 ** he had received proved us to be; that he much wifhed to fee our 



great emperor, and to communicate by a reciprocaition of prefents 

 •* with him ; and that he was ready to render us any fervices ; but that 



as to vifits to his court, they were attended with many difficulties, 

 " and he did not wifh for them.'* Cortes received this melTage with 

 apparent good humour, and prefented each of the ambaffadors with 

 holland fhirts and other articles of fmall value, but replied by obferving, 

 that after having cro{red fuch a vaft fpace of fea, he could not return 

 without executing the miffion which he had been fent upon, which 

 was, to fee and fpeak to the Emperor Montezuma in perfon, fuch be- 

 ing the orders of our great monarch, which he was compelled and de- 

 termined to obey. The ambaffadors replied that they would convey his 

 meffage, but gave no hopes of a favorable anfwer. Out of our poor 

 means Cortes contrived to fend by them a fecond prefent ; it confifted 

 of a glafs cup of Venetian manufacture, curioufly gilt and wrought 

 with figures, three holland fhirts, and fome other articles. With thefe 

 the two ambaffadors returned to Mexico, leaving Pitalpitoque to take 

 the charge of provifioning our camp. 



Cortes feeing that thefe uninhabited fand banks infefled by mof- 

 quitos were difadvantageous for a fettlement, ordered Francifco de Mon- 

 tejo, with two fmall fhips, to proceed along the coafl for the fpace of 

 ten days fail, in fearch of a port in a better fituation. Montejo ad- 

 vanced as far as the great river of Panuco, which he could not pafs on 

 account of the violence of the currents. He accordingly returned with- 

 out being able to report any information, except that twelve leagues 

 from this place, he had feen a town or fortrefs named Quiabuifllan, and 

 near it a harbour which appeared to the pilot to be fecure to the north. 



It 



