[61] ‘Anduvo se a la flor del berro, aun q̄ no sin trabajos y necessidades cerca de vn año.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 5. ‘Squandered his means at Valencia with bad companions,’ is the term used in Sandoval, Hist. Carlos, i. 161.
[62] Torquemada, i. 346, sees in the bird a messenger from God to conduct safely his chosen instrument for converting the natives of the New World. Pizarro y Orellana, Varones Ilvstres, 69-70, recognizes the Holy Ghost, who assumed this form, and comments on similar appearances elsewhere. How goodly a thing is faith!
[63] He assisted in the pacification of Higne, Bauruco, Daiguao, Iutagna, Jaraguá, and Amguayagua. Cortés, Memorial, in Col. Doc. Inéd., iv. 220.
[64] The author of De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii directs this expedition to Cuba, after delaying it three months in the hope of securing the services of Cortés, in both of which statements he is in error. Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 318-19.
[65] ‘Socium et ministrum consiliorum omnium adsumit.’ De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 320. So highly did Velazquez esteem the qualities of his friend, ‘diu multùmque Cortesium rogat, ut secum eat: maria ac montes pollicetur, si operam ad id bellum polliceatur.’ Id., 319. Las Casas, who knew Cortés at a later time, makes him one of the two secretaries of Velazquez, the other being Andrés de Duero; and this would coincide with the above. Las Casas is too inconsistent to be very reliable. On the same page he refers to Cortés as a prudent, reticent man, and also as a prater not to be trusted with secrets; useful to Velazquez only for his knowledge of Latin. Hist. Ind., iv. 10-11. Herrera, dec. i., lib. ix., cap. viii., follows Las Casas. Gomara, Hist. Mex., 6, calls him ‘oficial del tesorero Miguel de Passamõte, para tener cuẽta cõ los quintos y hazienda del rey, y aun el mesmo Diego Velazquez se lo rogo, por ser habil y diligente.’ Gomara may have had his reasons for not connecting him too closely with his later enemy, but he admits on this and on the following page that Velazquez intrusted him with business affairs of his own, which he was afterward charged with having divulged. Among these duties was superintending the construction of a mint and hospital. The position of clerk to a treasurer would of course be inferior to that of secretary to the chief of the expedition; yet if the treasurer was as illiterate as Contador Láres, his clerk would rank rather as deputy.
[66] ‘Era muy resabido y recatado,’ says Las Casas, ‘puesto que no mostraba saber tanto, ni ser de tanta habilidad como despues lo mostró en cosas árduas.’
[67] The deceased head of the family bore the name of Diego Suarez Pacheco, the mother that of María de Marcaida, also wrongly written Mercaida. The son, Juan Suarez, the partner of Cortés in the Cuban encomienda, afterward settled in Mexico. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 12-13. See also Proceso de Marcayda, in Cortés, Residencia, ii. 333. Peralta, the son of Juan, gives the family a genealogy of high order. Not. Hist., 57. ‘Suarez ... gente pobre.’ Las Casas, Hist. Ind., iv. 13. ‘Doña Catalina Suarez Pacheco (the daughter), doncella noble y recatada.’ Solis, Hist. Mex., i. 46, and Pizarro y Orellana, Varones Ilvstres, 70, also write Suarez, Herrera and Gomara, Xuarez. The latter says three or four daughters, Hist. Mex., 7, but it seems that there were four children in all. Those who write the more common form of Suarez are more explicit, and deserve at least equal credit with Gomara.
[68] Velazquez was married not long after his arrival in Cuba to the daughter of Contador Cuéllar. The bride died within the same week. Herrera, dec. i. lib. ix. cap. ix. ‘Velazquez fauoreciala por amor de otra su hermana, q̄ tenia ruin fama, y aun el era demasiado mugeril.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 7. Delaporte, Reisen, x. 141-2, assumes that Cortés won the love of her whom Velazquez wished to possess; while Gordon, Anc. Mex., ii. 32, supposes that the bride had been the object of Velazquez’ gallantry; hence the trouble. Folsom, on the other hand, marries one of the Suarez sisters to Velazquez, and calls him the brother-in-law of Cortés. Cortés, Despatches, 9, 11-12.
[69] Gomara, Hist. Mex., 7, insists that Velazquez had no motive for anger except the refusal of Cortés to marry. The meeting of conspirators at his house gave plausibility to the charges of his enemies. By others it is even stated that at these meetings Cortés defended the governor against the charges of the conspirators and overruled their plots. De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 325-6. The preponderance of evidence, however, is against this supposition.
[70] ‘Estando para se embarcar en una canoa de indios con sus papeles, fué Diego Velazquez avisado y hízolo prender y quísolo ahorcar.’ Las Casas, Hist. Ind., iv. 11. He was cast in the fort prison, lest the army should proclaim him general. ‘Timebat ne si quis,’ etc. De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 325 and 326-7.