presents, which were worth about two thousand dollars; and averring that he and all of us were good friends of Montezuma, declared that in such a spirit he still kept guard over the three tax gatherers—whom he sent for from the ships and delivered at once. As to the complaint about the people not paying tribute, they could not serve two masters at once, and they had, during our stay, sworn allegiance to our king; but for the rest, we were on our way to visit him and when we were once there we could in friendly talk arrange these matters. After this conversation Cortes presented the two young men with blue and green glass beads, and paid every honor to the old caciques; for instance, he had Alvarado and other good riders mount their horses and gallop and manɶuvre before them in a neighboring meadow. So the caciques went back to Mexico highly gratified.
This had its effect on our allies in the mountains and the people of Cempoala who had stood in such awe of the Mexicans. For when they saw kinsmen of the great Montezuma coming to us, and bearing themselves with marked respect to Cortes and to us all, they were astonished more and more and said to one another that we clearly must be teules, for Montezuma himself stood in fear of us and sent us presents of gold. This reasoning of theirs vastly augmented our power over them. In days following
