[XIII-12] Oviedo's statements concerning himself during this period of angry excitement must be taken with due allowance. The chronicler gives himself and his affairs at great length; but I will endeavor, in my curtailment of his account, not to forget that there were at this time, and before and after, twenty equally important issues of which there are less full records. See Oviedo, iii. 41-56 and 72-88; José Amador de los Rios, Vida y Escritos de Oviedo, in id., i. pp. ix.-cvii.; Herrera, dec. ii. lib. ii. cap. x.
[XIII-13] 'From which it may be seen,' says Oviedo, 'with what justice Vasco Nuñez was condemned, when his chief accomplice comes back not only acquitted but with honors.'
[XIV-1] There were three of this name whom we shall encounter, the contador of Española; the licenciado, who was alcalde mayor of the Spanish main under Diego de Ordaz, in 1530; Simon, Conq. Tierra Firme, 106-27; and the clergyman and chief chronicler, in 1655, of the Indies, and of both Castiles.
[XIV-2] The royal agreement was made specially with Niño, 'piloto de su magestad para el descubrimiento,' Gil Gonzalez being named captain-general. Niño was to explore 1,000 leagues to the westward for spices, gold, silver, pearls, and precious stones, in three ships, furnished half by the crown and half by the explorers, who were to receive for the purpose 4,000 castellanos de oro, from the sums to the credit of the crown in the hands of the factor of Castilla del Oro. One twentieth of what God might thus give them, after the king should have received his fifth, was to be devoted to pious purposes. The net proceeds to be divided equally between the crown and the discoverers, according to the amount contributed by each. Wages paid the crew to be counted in the costs; or if they went on shares, two thirds should go to the king and Niño, and one third to the captain, officers, and men. Supplies were to be exempt from duty, and the explorers should have an interest in the lands discovered by them. The crown agreed to furnish at Jamaica 2,000 loads of cassava-root, and 500 hogs; also ten negro slaves, the explorer to pay the owners for ten Indian slaves to serve as interpreters. For the faithful performance of these and other obligations, the explorer was required to give bonds in the sum of 2,000 ducats. Herrera, dec. ii. lib. iv. cap. i., gives only a part of the contract; in Squier's MSS., i. 12-14, is the document in full.
[XIV-3] A copy of this cédula may be found in Squier's MSS., i.
[XIV-4] In the Expediente sobre el Cumplimiento de la Cédula—see Los Navíos de Vasco Nuñez, in Squier's MSS.—is given at wearisome length the ceremony and sayings at this delivery and the results. Briefly, on the 4th of February, 1520, Pedrarias humbled himself to the dust before the sacred cédula; February 5th, he talked much, saying that he had finished the ships begun by Vasco Nuñez; that they had cost more than 50,000 ducados, beside sweat and blood; that with them the great city of Panamá—'la cibdad de Panamá'—with its gold mines on one side and pearl fisheries on the other, had been founded and the country thereabout pacified, and that if the king knew all this he would not take the ships from those who had built them and give them to another; February 7th, Juan del Sauce declared that, unless the ships were surrendered, all the gold, pearls, or other property taken in them would belong, under the king's order, to the fleet of Gil Gonzalez; February 8th, Pedrarias replied that without the ships the city could neither be sustained nor labor be continued, and he called on the royal officers present, Puente, the treasurer, Marquez, the contador, and Juan de Rivas, factor, to say that these things were so; but the royal officers answered that Pedrarias must obey the king's command and give Gil Gonzalez the ships, keeping one, perhaps, with which to protect the city, and selling the others to Gil Gonzalez on such terms as he and the owners might arrange. In regard to withholding the ships Pedrarias was certainly in the right, though it was dangerous, and he claimed that he would obey and was obeying the king; but when, on February 9th, he demanded that Gil Gonzalez should appear in person and lay before him the instructions and plans of the expedition, he became most coolly impudent.
[XIV-5] Squier, Dis. Nic., MSS., 13, says the worms destroyed them, but Gil Gonzalez himself only remarks, Carta al Rey, MSS., 1, 'Despues de hechos otros navios en la Ysla de las perlas porque los 4 primeros que se hizieron en la tierra firme se perdieron.'
[XIV-6] Some say from 200 to 80. Both numbers, however, should be larger; for the expedition gained men at Acla, and 100 are mentioned as constituting one land party during the expedition. Gil Gonzalez, Carta al Rey, MSS., 3.
[XIV-7] Tararequi Island, Galvano, Discov., 148, calls it; others, Terequeri Islands. Gil Gonzalez writes plainly enough, Carta al Rey, MS., 2, 'Me bolbí á la dicha Ysla de las Perlas ... i de aí me partí a hazer el descubrimiento que V M me mando hazer.' The same authority states that the second four vessels were built at the Pearl Islands, the others having been 'lost in the river 40 leagues distant.'
[XIV-8] For conflicting statements concerning this, compare Gil Gonzalez, Carta al Rey, MS., 16, 36; Andagoya's Nar., 31-2; Niño, Asiento, MS., in Squier's MSS., i. 14, and in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiv. 5-19; Oviedo, iii. 65-71; Las Casas, Hist. Ind., v. 200-4; Herrera, dec. ii. lib. iii. cap. xv.; dec. ii. lib. iv. cap. i.; dec. iii. i. cap. xvi.; Helps' Span. Conq., iii. 69, 70, 74-6; Gordon's Anc. Mex., ii. 204-8; Squier's Dis. Nic., MSS., 7-10.