ABSTRACT
The next day the same old Caciques came and brought with them five beautiful Indian maidens, and for Indians they were very good looking and well adorned, and each of the Indian maidens brought another Indian girl as her servant, and all were the daughters of Caciques, and Xicotenga said to Cortés, “Malinche, this is my daughter who has never been married and is a maiden, take her for your own,” and he gave her to him by the hand, “and let the others be given to the captains.” Cortés expressed his thanks, and with every appearance of gratification said that he accepted them and took them as our own, but that for the present they should remain in the care of their parents. The Chiefs asked him why he would not take them now, and Cortés replied that he wished first to do the will of God our Lord, whom we believed in and worshipped, and that for which our Lord the King had sent us, which was to induce them to do away with their Idols, and no longer to kill and sacrifice human beings, and the other infamies they were wont to practise, and to lead them to believe in that which we believed, that is in one true God, and he told them much more touching our holy faith, and in truth he expressed it very well, for Doña Marina and Aguilar, our interpreters, were already so expert at it that they explained it very clearly. He showed the Caciques an image of our Lady, with her precious Infant in her arms, and explained to them how that image was in the likeness of our Lady, who is called Santa Maria, who dwells in the high heavens and is the mother of our Lord, who is that Child Jesus whom she holds in her arms, whom she conceived by the grace of the Holy Spirit, being a virgin before His birth, and remaining a Virgin during His birth, and after His birth, and how that Great Lady prays for us to her precious Son who is our God and Lord, and he told them many other things which it was fitting to say about our holy faith. He also told them that if they wished to be our brothers and to have true friendship with us, so that we should willingly accept their daughters and take them, as they said, for our wives, that they should at once give up their evil Idols and believe in and worship our Lord God, who is He in whom we believe and whom we worship, and they would see how well things would go with them, for in addition to having good health and good seasons, other things would prosper with them, and when they died their souls would go to Heaven to enjoy glory everlasting; but that if they went on making sacrifices as they were accustomed to do to their Idols, which were devils, they would be led to Hell where they would burn for ever in live flames. And as in other discourses he had already said much about the giving up of their Idols, he said nothing more now and what they replied to it all is as follows:—
