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countiymen that if they fubmitted, he would deliver up to them tiie 

 whole of thofe he had taken, which meffage was delivered, and chear- 

 fuUy complied with. 



In confequence of the orders which Cortes had given to our cap- 

 tain, who was alfo my particular friend, to give me fome good fituation, 

 I was appointed to the command of this encomienda which I held for 

 eight years. The firft thing I did was, to get a reverend father to 

 preach to the Indians, and convert them to the chriftian faith j we ac^ 

 cordingly eredted an altar and crucifix, and he preached to them to good 

 effed:. The firft day we baptifed fifteen, to my great fatisfadtion, for 

 I loved and wifhed well to them, they being now my own. There was 

 in this neighbourhood a people who inhabited three fortified towns, and 

 were in rebellion againft us, named the Guegueftitlans, and it became 

 neceffary to march againft and reduce them. Leaving therefore our 

 wounded and baggage behind, the moil flout and ad:ive among us pro- 

 ceeded againil: them ; they had barricaded all their approaches with fall- 

 en trees, which we cleared by the affiflance of our Indian allies, and 

 arrived under their fortreffes, which appeared likely to give us enough 

 to do, for the firft we came to was full of warriors who were well ap- 

 pointed, offenfively and defenfively. When we mounted to the affault 

 they all fled and left the place to us, but our allies made two of them 

 prifoners, who were immediately releafed, and fent with offers of peace 

 and good treatment to their friends, on fubmiflion. Thefe conditions 

 they accepted and came in, bringing with them fome trifling prefents 

 of gold, and feathers of the quetzal. 



Having thus effe(5led our bufinefs here, we proceeded according to 

 the diredlions of Cortes, to eftablifh a colony. Hereupon there was a 

 difference of opinion amongfl us, for fome were for it, but others who 

 had plantations and Indians in Guacacualco were adverfe, objeding to it 

 as an unfit fituation for cavalry, and faying alfo that our force in its 

 prefent reduced ftate was infufficient, the diftrid: being populous, and 

 the towns built in the faftneffes of the mountains. Thus our party fell 



into 



