[97] ‘Començó Cortés â poner casa, y â tratarse como señor: y el primer Maestresala q̄ tuvo, fue vn Guzmã que luego se muriò, ò mataron Indios.’ A different man from the later mayordomo, Cristóbal de Guzman, who captured Quauhtemotzin during the siege of Mexico. ‘Caceres ... fue despues de ganado Mexico, hombre rico.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 15-16.
[98] Bernal Diaz says that Barba was one of the most devoted to Cortés. See, also, Herrera, dec. ii. lib. iii., cap. xiii. Solis details at length a public gathering, in which the members of the expedition became highly excited over Velazquez’ efforts to stop Cortés, and threatened to destroy the town. He adds that a rumor of Velazquez’ coming in person to enforce his order created another excitement. Hist. Mex., i. 63-6; Robertson, Hist. Am., ii. 8, follows him; also Prescott. According to Las Casas, Velazquez sends a letter to Cortés, asking him to wait for an important communication, which he will bring in person or send by messenger. At the same time come letters for Ordaz and others, requesting them to seize the commander. Ordaz accordingly invites him to a banquet on board his vessel, with the intent of carrying him off to Santiago; but Cortés perceives the snare and retires under pretence of indisposition. The good bishop observes that he never knew Velazquez evince so little sagacity as on this occasion; nor did Ordaz behave any better. Hist. Ind., iv. 456-7. Gomara has the same account, but adds that the messenger from Velazquez came in a caravel, together with Alvarado, Olid, Ávila, Montejo, and others of Grijalva’s party, who had just arrived from an interview with the governor. Hist. Mex., 14. He is evidently mixed. Torquemada, who quotes both versions from Herrera and Gomara, places the occurrence at Trinidad, and considers that Cortés was capable of and right in foiling Velazquez. Bernal Diaz scouts Gomara’s story, which is repeated in De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 355-6. Peralta claims that his father, Suarez, pursued and slew the Indian courier sent with orders for Luis de Medina, then with the fleet, to assume the command. He thereupon brought the papers to Cortés and warned him to sail away. Nat. Hist., 62-4. Peralta evidently upholds all his father told him.
[99] So affirms Tapia, one of the party. Relacion, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 555; and this is the view of most writers. Bernal Diaz states that the review was held at Cozumel, which may also have been the case; but he was not present at San Antonio. A review must have been held before the fleet set out on its voyage, in order that captains might be appointed and receive apportionments of men and supplies. Zamacois, Hist. Méj., ii. 292-3, assumes that, owing to Alvarado’s absence, the muster was reserved for Cozumel.
[100] ‘Tomo [Cortés] fiada de Diego Sanz tendero, vna tieda de bohoneria en sieteciẽtos pesos de oro.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 12, 14-15. This was at Santiago. This author, who, together with Diaz, forms the main authority for the above list, mentions only eleven vessels, but does not include Alvarado’s. He places the Spanish force at 550 men, but, by adding to this the sixty and odd men absent with Alvarado from the review, the number would agree with Bernal Diaz’ figures. Thirteen vessels, two having joined at Habana as transports; 530 infantry; twenty-four horses; 5000 loads of maize and cassava; 2000 tocinos. De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 356. Twelve vessels and 500 men. Carta del Ayunt. de V. Cruz, in Col. Doc. Inéd., i. 419-20. Fifteen vessels and 500 men, without any Indians or negroes, says Cortés, in his Memorial, 1542, not venturing to admit that he had disobeyed the royal order and his instructions in taking Cuban Indians. Cortés, Escritos Sueltos, 310; Col. Doc. Inéd., iv. 220. Seven navios, three bergantines. Oviedo, i. 539. Nine vessels, 550 Spaniards, two to three hundred Indians. Las Casas, Hist. Ind., iv. 446, 457. Eleven vessels of thirty to one hundred tons, 663 Spaniards, including thirty men with firearms. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., iv. 54; Cogolludo, Hist. Yucathan, 19; Vetancvrt, Teatro Ecles., pt. ii. 100-11; Fancourt’s Hist. Yuc., 26-7; Zamacois, Hist. Méj., ii. 296. Thirteen vessels, 560 persons, thirteen horses. Tapia, Relacion, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 558; Prescott, Mex., i. 262, follows both Bernal Diaz and Gomara, but without seeking to account for their differences, and thus allows himself to exceed every other authentic estimate for the number of the men.
[101] Torquemada, i. 364; Gomara, Hist. Mex., 14, gives the same names, except that Francisco de Salcedo stands in the place of Alvarado. Solis, Hist. Mex., i. 66, mentions eleven, including Salcedo and Nortes; Las Casas, Hist. Ind., iv. 453, names eight, as appointed by Velazquez. Zamacois, Hist. Méj., ii. 287, leaves out Ávila, which is certainly a mistake, based on Bernal Diaz, who includes Ginés Nortes, the captain merely of a transport. Salcedo joined later, at Villa Rica.
[102] Such is in substance the speech prepared by Gomara, Hist. Mex., 15-16, well suited for the enterprise, yet not exactly in accord with the pretended mission of peaceful trade and exploration. Torquemada, i. 364-5, gives it nearly in the same form, while Solis, Hist. Mex., i. 71-3, elaborates to suit himself.
[103] The date of departure is generally admitted to be February 18th, but in Cortés, Memorial, 1542, is written ‘tardó en esto [fitting out] desde dieciocho dias del mes de Octubre ... hasta dieciocho dias del mes de Enero, del año de diez y nueve que acabó de salir de la dicha Isla de Cuba, del cabo de Corrientes.’ Cortés, Escritos Sueltos, 313. This is wrong, however, for the fleet could not have left Santiago before the date of the instructions; yet it confirms the fact that three months were spent, after leaving Santiago, before the fleet finally left the island. Some of the authors indicate a portion of this time, showing that eight days were spent at Macãco and twelve at Trinidad, leaving seventy-two days for the brief passages along the south coast of Cuba and for the stay at San Cristóbal.
De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, or, as the Spanish translator entitles it, Vida de Hernan Cortés, giving the fullest but also the most partial account of Cortés up to this time, is an anonymous manuscript in Latin, of eleven folio leaves, deposited in the Simancas archives, whence Muñoz obtained a copy, published by Icazbalceta in his Coleccion de Documentos, i. 309-57. It is in a clear hand, with corrections and marginals, evidently by the author. Several points indicate that it formed part of De Orbe Novo, a history of America, written apparently in a series of biographies, to judge from the reference made to a preceding part relating to Columbus, and to later parts on the conquest of Mexico. Muñoz expresses the opinion that the author may be Calvet de Estrella, chronicler of the Indies, mentioned by Nic. Antonio as the writer of the manuscripts De Rebus Gestis Vaccæ Castri, in the Colegio del Sacro Monte de Granada. This title induced him to name the present document De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii. The supposition is warranted by the style and by the evident date; for references indicate that it was written during the lifetime of several companions of Cortés. The fragment begins with the hero’s birth and ends at his departure with the fleet from Cuba. Although the facts related conform, as a rule, to Gomara’s version, a number of authorities have been consulted, some of them no longer extant, chiefly with a view to extol the character and career of the hero, and to elaborate incidents into tiresome prolixity.