to Cortes. Our general thanked him for thefe marks of good will, 

 and the chiefs remained with him a whole day. Xicotenga who 

 fliewed particular attachment to Cortes, was blind ; he was curious to 

 examine with his hands, his hel^, features, and beard, which the 

 general permitted him to do. 



On the next day the chiefs brought five daughters of caciques, 

 handfome in comparifon to the other women of the country, well 

 dreffed, and each attended by a female flave. Xicotenga then prefented 

 his own daughter to Cortes, defiring him to aflign the reft to his of- 

 ficers. Cortes thanked him, but obferved, that for the prefent the 

 ladies muft remain with their parents. The chief alking the reafon 

 why he would not receive them he replied, that it was neceffary firft to 

 obey the mandates of our Lord God, and the will of our monarch who 

 had fent us thither, to put a ftop to human facrifices, and other evil 

 practices, and bring them to the true faith in the adoration of one God. 

 He then fhewed them a beauteous iinage of our Lady, with her precious 

 fon in her arms, and explained to them that it was the reprcfentatidn of 

 the holy Mary, who is in the heavens, and mother to our Lord, by the 

 grace of the Holy Ghoft, " Sine peccato concepta/* and that (he is our 

 mediatrix with her precious fon, who is our Lord God; then, faid he, 

 if you wifh to be our brethren, and that we fhould intermarry with you, 

 renounce your idolatrous worfliip, and adore our God, the good cffcdls 

 of which you will foon perceive in your temporal concerns, and thereby, 

 after this life, your fouls (hall be taken into heaven, there to enjoy 

 eternal happinefs. Whereas, by perfifting in the worfhip of your idols, 

 which are devils, you will be drawn by them to their infernal pit, there 

 to burn eternally in flames of fire. Cortes after an excellent harangue 

 containing much more matter to the fame effedt, which was perfe<5lly 

 well explained by our interpreters, here ceafed and waited their anfwcr, 

 which was given by the chiefs as follows. That they readily believed 

 all that they had heard now, and before, of the excellence of our God, 

 and his faints, and that they hoped in time to underftand more upon 

 the fubject ; that in regard to the renunciation of their ancient religion,. 



if 



