Mexico, had arrived in person; and they brought at the same time a quantity of provisions for him.
As the caziques of the four principal townships happened to stand all together in the presence of Cortes, he took the opportunity of addressing them at some length, which was interpreted to them by Doña Marina. He first spoke to them about our holy religion, and then of our great emperor Don Carlos of Austria, who had dominion over so many countries and nations; how his majesty had sent us expressly into these countries in order to abolish from among them all idolatry, theft, the sacrificing of human beings, the eating of human flesh, and other abominations; also to accustom them to live in peace and harmony with each other. It was therefore their duty, he added, to subject themselves to a monarch who was so mercifully inclined, and to lend us every assistance in their power; but, on the other hand, he should be compelled to punish those severely who in any way broke the peace.
After this, father Juan de las Varillas and the two Franciscan monks preached an edifying sermon to them, which two Mexicans, who understood the Spanish language, and other persons, interpreted to the caziques, who listened with great attention to all that was said, and readily acknowledged themselves vassals of our emperor, and promised to obey Malinche in everything. Our general then ordered them to furnish the colony with provisions, and to send a number of Indians with the necessary tools to level a rising ground which lay in the town and obstructed the view of the harbour and of the sea. He also desired them to repair with their canoes to some townships of the Guanajas islands to request the inhabitants there to supply him with fish, which they had in abundance. The inhabitants of these islands readily complied, and brought a present consisting in fowls and fish, Cortes, in return, giving them some of the swine he had taken with him on this expedition; for he had been assured by a Spaniard that these islands were peculiarly adapted for breeding pigs, provided the animals were allowed