FOOTNOTES
[654] ‘Velazquez ... si yua en persona no podia escusar de respetarle, aunque por su buena, y blãda condicion, confiaua que le traeria a qualquier buen partido; pero temia que yendo otro qualquier General.’ Herrera, dec. ii. lib. ix. cap. xix.
[655] Gomara, Hist. Mex., 144; Herrera, dec. ii. lib. ix. cap. xxi.; Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 90. ‘Afirman muchos, que en essa saçon estaba tan bien quisto Cortés, que si á todos los quisiera llevar, todos se fueran trás él.’ Oviedo, iii. 509. Which is exaggerated, as we have seen.
[656] ‘Debia ser alguna mala gente, y no vasallos de V. A.,’ is Cortés’ version of the reply, Cartas, 119-20, while his interpreter, Aguilar, gives it more literally as ‘una gente vizcaynos e que no los enbiava el enperador.’ Testimonio, in Cortés, Residencia, ii. 47, 184. Gomara adds that Cortés said he was going to protect Montezuma’s subjects, and to keep the strangers on the coast till he was ready to depart. The emperor probably dissimulated, ‘holgando que vnos Christianos a otros se matassen.’ Hist. Mex., 145. Forgetting that the declared purposes of Narvaez were well known in Mexico, Herrera renders the answer that this captain was a brother of Cortés, sent with a present from their king. Both would come up to the capital and then leave the country. The rumored enmity was due to an order from Spain to avenge any injury suffered at the hands of the natives, dec. ii. lib. x. cap. i. Brasseur de Bourbourg follows him.
[657] ‘Aquellos españoles le dejaba encomendados con todo aquel oro y joyas que él me habia dado ... y le dí muchas joyas y ropas á él,’ et seq. Cortés, Cartas, 119-20. ‘Aun prometiò, que embiaria en nuestra ayuda cinco mil hombres de guerra, e Cortes ... bien entendiò que no los auia de embiar, e le dixo, que no auia menester.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 91; Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt. iii. 135. Ixtlilxochitl assumes in one place that Cortés asked for men, and was told that Aztecs dared not fight Spaniards, but would go as carriers. In another version the confederate kings grant the auxiliaries. Hist. Chich., 300; Relaciones, 389, 412. Solis assumes that Montezuma is devoted to Cortés; so does Zamacois, who sees a proof thereof in the offer of troops. He could not communicate with Narvaez for want of interpreters, and had he wished to aid the latter he would have attacked the Spanish quarters. Hist. Mex., ii. 70-1. All of which shows that this author is not profound either in investigation or argument.
[658] Bernal Diaz places the force at 83 men, with 10 cross-bows, 14 firelocks, 4 large guns, falconets, 7 horses, and all the ammunition; 150 men were left, and 150 taken, Oviedo; a little over 50 were left, Tapia; all wished to go, but 200 were left and 250 taken, including the men of Velazquez, with 8 to 9 horses, and a force of carriers, Gomara; 150 left, 250 taken, with a number of Indians, Ixtlilxochitl; 150 left, Probanza de Lejalde. B. V. de Tapia, who remained with Alvarado, says 130; Ramirez, Proceso contra Alvarado, 36. Cortés’ own account distributes the total of his force as follows: 140 left at Mexico, 150 absent under Velazquez, 70 taken by himself, 150 at Villa Rica; but this is more than the original number given on setting out for the plateau. The Villa Rica force may, however, have been reduced by later drafts, for other authorities allow only about 70 men for this fortress. In the Ramusio edition of the Cartas 140 men are given as the garrison left under Alvarado, while 60 are taken by Cortés, Viaggi, iii. 244, but later issues place the former figure at 500, which is evidently a misprint. However much the figures of different writers may vary, it seems to be admitted that war and disease had made a considerable inroad upon them.
[659] ‘Fizo capitan dellos a Alonzo Davila.’ Monjaras and Aguilar, in Cortés, Residencia, ii. 48, 184.
[660] ‘Que seria fasta catorze mill castellanos.’ Monjaras, in Cortés, Residencia, ii. 49. ‘Cinco o seys mill.’ Tirado, in Id., 7.
[661] ‘Porq̄ le pareciò q̄ auia conseguido su intento.’ Herrera, dec. ii. lib. x. cap. i. Perhaps in spreading the rumor that he came with Indian auxiliaries. Among the auxiliaries were 400 men from Huexotzinco, under Pedro Gonzalez de Trujillo. Tirado, and others, in Cortés, Residencia, i. 247 et seq.; ii. 7 et seq. It is this expedition of Rodriguez, assisted by Diego Garcia, Alonso de Ojeda, and Juan Marquez, as captains, that has misled Gomara, and particularly Herrera, in supposing that the whole expedition received a grand reception at Tlascala; but, beside the above reference, Cortés intimates clearly enough that he did not go that way, and he certainly did take a more southerly route to the coast than on the previous journey. Cartas, 120. Bernal Diaz also says: ‘embiò Cortes a Tlascala â rogar ... que nos embiassen de presto quatro mil hombres.’ Hist. Verdad., 91. Prescott falls not only into this generally adopted error, but states that 600 troops were asked for, Mex., ii. 243, whilst the chroniclers all say from 4000 to 10,000.‘La maior parte de ellos se bolviò, porque aquella Nacion no estaba acostumbrada à pelear fuera de su Tierra.’ Torquemada, i. 482. A not very sound excuse, since their troops had already gone to Mexico.
[662] About twenty leagues east of Cholula.