[543] ‘Cortés se holgô tanto con el oro como si fueran treinta mil pesos, en saber cierto que avia buenas minas.’ Bernal Diaz intimates beside that Umbría and his two companions had provided themselves with plenty of gold. Hist. Verdad., 81-2.
[544] A young man of 25 years, whom Cortés treated as a relative. With him went four Spaniards who understood mining, and four chiefs. Id.
[545] ‘En granos crespillos, porque dixeron los mineros, que aquello era de mas duraderas minas como de nacimiento.’ Id., 82.
[546] Bernal Diaz names them, ‘Barriẽtos, y Heredia el viejo, y Escalona el moço, y Cervantes el chocarrero,’ and says that Cortés, displeased at soldiers being left to raise fowl and cacao, sent Alonso Luis to recall them. Hist. Verdad., 82; Herrera, dec. ii. lib. ix. cap. i. He is evidently mistaken, as shown by his own later text, for Cortés himself states that he sought to form plantations in that direction. The recall was made later and for a different reason.
[547] ‘Estaban sembradas sesenta hanegas de maíz y diez de frijoles, y dos mil piés de cacap [cacao] ... hicieron un estanque de agua, y en él pusieron quinientos patos ... y pusieron hasta mil y quinientas gallinas.’ Cortés, Cartas, 94; Peter Martyr, dec. v. cap. iii. Oviedo writes that farms were established for the king in two or three provinces, one in Chimanta [Chimantla]. The two Spaniards left in the latter were saved, but elsewhere, subject to the Aztecs, they were killed during the uprising originated by Alvarado. iii. 376. Tapia refers to an expedition at this time against a revolted province, 80 leagues off. Rel., in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 584.
[548] ‘Por aquella causa llaman oy en dia, donde aquella guerra passò, Cuilonemiqui.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 82.
[549] Herrera, loc. cit. ‘Creyan lo que desseauan,’ remarks Gomara, Hist. Mex., 131.
[550] Cortés, Cartas, 95, 116; Gomara, Hist. Mex., 131-2. Bernal Diaz throws doubt on the expedition of Velazquez, but is evidently forgetful. Hist. Verdad., 81-2. ‘El señor de la provinçia ... luego hiço seys [casas] en el assiento é parte que para el pueblo se señaló.’ Oviedo, iii. 293. Peter Martyr calls these buildings ‘Tributaries’ houses.’ dec. v. cap. iii.; Cortés, Residencia, ii. 6, 49.
[551] He had served as equerry in the noble houses of the Conde de Ureña and Pedro Giron, of whose affairs he was always prating. His propensity for tale-telling lost him many friends, but he managed to keep intimate with Sandoval, whose favors he afterward repaid with ingratitude. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 76, 246. Gomara insists on naming him as the comandante, but this dignity he attained only after Sandoval and Rangel had held it. Cortés, Residencia, i. 256; Torquemada, i. 456.
[552] ‘Luego que entré en la dicha ciudad di mucha priesa á facer cuatro bergantines ... tales que podian echar trecientos hombres en la tierra y llevar los caballos.’ Cortés, Cartas, 103; Peter Martyr, dec. v. cap. iv. ‘Quatro fustas.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 146. ‘Dos vergantines.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 76. The cedars of Tacuba, numerous enough at this period, yielded much of the timber, and the slopes of Iztaccihuatl and Telapon the harder portion for masts, keels, etc. Mora, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, ix. 301.