There is no documentary evidence with regard to the settlement of Jamaica by Juan de Esquivel, or of the circumnavigation of Cuba by Sebastian de Ocampo; and there are but slight allusions to them in the “chroniclers.”[728] There is not much to be found concerning the settlement of Cuba, except the accounts given by the early chroniclers. I should place Oviedo (vol. i. p. 494) first, although he got his knowledge second hand from the account given by Las Casas; while the story of this actual observer is necessarily tinged by the peculiar views—peculiar for the nation and epoch—which he held in later life with regard to the enslavement of the natives.[729]
With the voyage of Córdoba to Yucatan, Navarrete[730] again becomes useful, although he printed no new evidence. The voyage, therefore, rests upon the accounts given in the standard books,[731] upon the Historia verdadera of Bernal Diaz, the Vida de Cortés in Icazbalceta (i. 338), and a few documents recently dragged from the recesses of the Indian Archives.
Bernal Diaz del Castillo came to Tierra-Firme with Pedrárias; but, discouraged with the outlook there, he and about one hundred companions found their way to Cuba, attracted thither by the inducements held out by Velasquez. But there again he was doomed to disappointment, and served under Córdoba, Grijalva, and Cortés. After the conquest of Mexico he settled in Guatemala. Whatever may be the exaggerations in the latter part of his Historia verdadera,[732] there is no reason why Bernal Diaz should not have wished to tell the truth as to the voyages of Córdoba and Grijalva, with one or two exceptions, to be hereafter noted.
Prescott, in his Conquest of Mexico (vol. i. p. 222), says that Córdoba sailed for one of the neighboring Bahamas, but that storms drove him far out of his course, etc. Bancroft[733] has effectually disposed of this error. But is it not a curious fact that Bernal Diaz and Oviedo should give the length of the voyage from Cape St. Anton to the sighting of the islands off Yucatan as from six to twenty-one days? Oviedo was probably nearer the mark, as it is very likely that the old soldier had forgotten the exact circumstances of the voyage; for it must be borne in mind that he did not write his book until long after the events which it chronicles. As to the object of the expedition, it was undoubtedly undertaken for the purpose of procuring slaves, and very possibly Velasquez contributed a small vessel to the two fitted out by the other adventurers;[734] but the claim set forth by the descendants of Velasquez, that he sent four fleets at his own cost—La una con un F. H. de Córdoba[735]—is preposterous.
The voyage of Juan de Grijalva was much better chronicled; for with regard to it there are in existence three accounts written by eye-witnesses. The first is that of Bernal Diaz,[736] which is minute, and generally accurate; but it is not unlikely that in his envy at the praise accorded to Cortés, he may have exaggerated the virtues of Grijalva. The latter also wrote an account of the expedition, which is embodied in Oviedo,[737] together with corrections suggested by Velasquez, whom Oviedo saw in 1523.
But before these I should place the Itinerario of Juan Diaz, a priest who accompanied the expedition.[738] The original is lost; but an Italian version is known, which was printed with the Itinerario de Varthema at Venice, in 1520.[739] This edition was apparently unknown to Navarrete, who gives 1522 as the date of its appearance in Italian, in which he is followed by Ternaux-Compans and Prescott.
Notwithstanding this mass of original material, it is not easy to construct a connected narrative of this voyage, for Oviedo sometimes contradicts himself; Bernal Diaz had undoubtedly forgotten the exact dates, which he nevertheless attempts to give in too many cases; Juan Diaz, owing partly to the numerous translations and changes incidental thereto, is sometimes unintelligible; and Las Casas,[740] who had good facilities for getting at the exact truth, is often very vague and difficult to follow.
JUAN DE GRIJALVA.