( '06 ) 



which came in very good time, for we were heartily tired of this fcvere 

 and hapelefs war. 



The hiftorian Gomara fays, that Cortes afcended a rock, in order 

 to get a view of Ziimpacingo. I fay it was clofe to our ftation, and 

 the man muft have been Wind indeed who could not have feen it from 

 thence. He alfo talks of mutinies, and other things, of which he fays 

 that he was informed. I fay that never was a captain in the world 

 better obeyed than Cortes, and that no fuch thought ever entered the 

 mind of any of us, nor any thing that could be fo conftrued, except 

 the aftkir of the fands, and what I have lately related, which was only 

 by way of advice, for the whole of our foldiers followed him moft 

 zealoufly, and it is no ftrange thing that good foldiers fhould ©cca* 

 fionally coimfel their chief. 



The news of the great victory which it had been the will of God 

 to give to us flew through all parts, and foon reached the ears of the 

 great Montezuma; infomuch that this monarch, awed by the fame of 

 our valour, fent five of the principal noblemen of his court, to con.- 

 gratulate us upon our fuccelTes. By them he fent a prefent of various 

 articles of wrought gold, to the amount of a thoufand crowns, and 

 twenty loads of the richeft mantles, with a declaration of his wilh to 

 become a vaffal of our great monarch, to whom he offered to pay an 

 annual tribute; adding, that from the efteem in which he held our 

 general, he much wilhed to fee him at his court in Mexico, but that 

 he was obliged to deprive himfelf of that fatisfadion, in confequence 

 of the poverty of the country and badnefs of the roads by which he 

 was to pafs. Cortes expreffed his obligation to this great monarch for 

 the prefent, and his offer to pay tribute to our fovereign; he requefted 

 the ambaffadors to flay and accompany him to Tlafcala, with which 

 government he had not yet made his concluUve arrangements, and de- 

 iired that they would allow him to defer giving any farther anfwer on 

 that day. He was now convalefcent, and had taken as a medicine cer- 

 tain apples of great virtue, the produce of the Ifland of Cuba. 



While 



