La Relación - page 99

La Relación - page 99

and wasted and the Indians were hiding and in flight through the woods, not wanting to settle in their villages. He wanted us to call them and order them in Your Majesty's name to return and settle the plain and cultivate the soil. We thought this would be very difficult to carry out because we had not brought any of our Indians with us nor any of those who usually accompanied us and understood these matters. At last we sent for this purpose two of the Indians they had brought as captives, who were of the same people as the Indians of that land. These two were with the Christians when we first reached them, and they saw the people that accompanied us and learned from them the great authority and dominion we had throughout all those lands, the wonders we had worked, the sick people we had healed, as well as many other things. We sent other Indians from the village with these and told them to go together to call the Indians who were up in the mountains and the people from the Petaán River, where we had found the Christians. We told them to tell the Indians to come to us because we wanted to speak to them. To insure that they would be safe and the others would come, we gave them one of the large gourds that we carried in our hands, our chief insignia and a sign of our high status. They left with it and traveled for seven days. At the end of this period, they returned, bringing three chiefs of the people who were up in the mountains. Each chief had fifteen men with him. They also brought us beads, turquoises and plumes. The messengers told us that they had not found the natives of the river where we had met the Christians, because the Christians had once again caused them to flee into the mountains.

Melchor Díaz told the interpreter to speak to those Indians on our behalf, telling them that we came on behalf of God, who is in heaven, and that we had gone through the world for many years telling all the people we met to believe in God and serve him, because he was the lord of everything in the world and would

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