CHAPTER CXXXVI

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_How the chief officers and principal personages of Narvaez's troops request leave to return to Cuba, which Cortes grants, and they accordingly leave; also how our general sends ambassadors to Spain, St. Domingo, and Jamaica._

The officers of Narvaez's troops and those who had come from Jamaica in Garay's expedition, seeing that the whole province of Tepeaca was now tranquillized, begged Cortes would fulfil his promise, and allow them to depart for Cuba; who not only granted them their request, but promised them, and particularly Duero and Bermudez, that he would give them much more gold after the total conquest of New Spain and Mexico, than they had previously received. In the meantime he furnished them with provisions of the kinds we had, consisting in maise, salted dog's flesh, and fowls. He likewise gave them one of our best vessels, and sent by them letters to his wife Catalina Suarez de Mercayda, and to his brother-in-law Juan Suarez, who was then staying at Cuba. These letters were accompanied by a few bars of gold and some jewels, and contained, among other things, an account of our overthrow at Mexico.

All those who left New Spain on that occasion had accumulated great riches, and I will give their names, as far as my memory permits. Duero, Bermudez, Bono, Bernardino Quesada, Francisco Velasquez, with the hunchback, a relation of the governor of Cuba; Carrasco, who afterwards returned to New Spain, and now lives at Puebla; Melchior de Velasco, of Guatimala; a certain Ximenes, who lives at Quaxaca, and was obliged to go to Cuba on account of his son; the accountant Leon de Cervantes, who made the same excuse to see his daughter there, for whom he concluded a most excellent match after the conquest of Mexico; Maldonado de Medellin was forced to leave on account of ill health; the other of that name, who was surnamed the proud, and was married to a lady named Maria Arias, likewise left us; further, a certain Vargas, of Trinidad, who, at Cuba, was commonly called the gallant; lastly, one of Cortes' old warriors, the pilot Cardenas, who said to one of his companions, "We soldiers may now take our repose, since New Spain has two kings." Cortes had presented him with 300 pesos, to induce him to return with his wife and family. Besides these men, there were many others whose names I have forgotten, which, indeed, is a good thing, for it prevents me from going too much into detail.

As soon as Cortes had given them permission to leave, we asked him why he had allowed them to depart, as he knew there would be so few of us remaining? Cortes said he had done so to rid himself of their eternal complaints and solicitations. We likewise knew that many of them were not fit for service, and it was better to be alone than in bad company.

Pedro de Alvarado was commissioned to see them safe on board, with orders to return immediately to head-quarters after they had left.

About this time Cortes also despatched Ordas and Alonso de Mendoza on business to Spain, but for what particular purpose he never told us. We only heard that the bishop of Burgos told Ordas to his face that we were all villains and traitors, and that Ordas had boldly defended us. The latter, on this occasion, was made comptoir of Santiago, and received permission from the emperor to assume a burning mountain in his coat of arms. What he further did in Spain I will relate hereafter.

Alonso de Avila, who was treasurer of New Spain, and Alvarez Chico, another thorough man of business, were despatched in another vessel to St. Domingo to render an account of all we had done to the royal court of audience there, and to the Hieronymite brothers, who were appointed viceroys over the whole of the islands, to gain their approbation of our proceedings against Narvaez, and their sanction of the manner in which we had enslaved and punished the inhabitants who had murdered the Spaniards and rebelled against his majesty: and their opinion as to whether Cortes should not similarly punish all those tribes who, as allies of the Mexicans, had been guilty of like offences. Lastly, Cortes begged of them to inform his majesty of all this, and of the great services we had rendered and still daily rendered to the crown; and requested them to favour our just cause against the bishop of Burgos, who was striving to work out our ruin.

A third vessel was despatched by Cortes to Jamaica, to purchase horses there, the command of which was given to Solis, who was the son-in-law of the bachelor Ortega. Here the reader might be induced to ask whence Cortes obtained the money to do all this? In reply to which, I can only say that of the gold stowed away by Narvaez's and our own troops,

## particularly by the horse, a great quantity was certainly saved. Besides

that, many of the eighty Tlascallans, who were loaded with the gold, and retreated from Mexico in the vanguard, got safely over the bridges. We poor soldiers, who had not to command but to obey, cared very little at that time whether there was plenty of gold or not, but were happy if we escaped alive and were able to cure our wounds. However, of the gold that was saved, Cortes received as much back as he could possibly lay his hands on; our men likewise suspected that he had put into his own pocket again the 40,000 pesos, being the share of the Mexican treasure belonging to the garrison of Vera Cruz. With this money he sent persons to Spain and St. Domingo on his own private business, and others to Jamaica to purchase horses.

Perfect tranquillity being now again restored to the province of Tepeaca, Cortes marched back with his troops to Tlascalla, and left Francisco de Orozco behind, with twenty invalid soldiers, as commandant of Villa Segura.

Cortes then ordered the necessary quantity of wood to be felled for building thirteen brigantines, with which another attack was to be made upon Mexico; for we were convinced we should not be able to make any impression upon that town without a small fleet, nor ever again be able to enter it by the causeways. Martin Lopez was appointed by Cortes to superintend the important business of constructing these brigantines, for he was not only a good soldier, but, upon the whole, rendered his majesty the greatest services in all our warlike operations. On this occasion again, he set to work with his usual assiduity, and it was very fortunate that this man had been with us from the beginning; for, if we had been forced to send for a ship-builder from Spain, we should have lost much valuable time, and we might not have found a man who suited so well.

On our arrival in Tlascalla, we found that our old friend Maxixcatzin, one of his majesty's most faithful vassals, was no more, he having died of the smallpox. We were all sorely grieved at this loss, and Cortes himself, as he assured us, felt it as much as if he had lost his own father. We put on black cloaks in mourning for him, and paid the last honours to the remains of our departed friend, in conjunction with his sons and relations.

A dispute having arisen in Tlascalla respecting the heir to the caziquedom, Cortes pronounced in favour of the deceased's son, in accordance with the last wishes of his late father. Maxixcatzin, on his death-bed, strongly advised his whole family to remain faithful to Malinche and his brothers; for they, he said, were certainly those people for whom the dominion of these countries had been predestined.

However, let us leave the dead in peace, and turn to the living. The elder Xicotencatl, Chichimeclatecl, and the other caziques of Tlascalla, one and all gladly offered their assistance to Cortes in cutting wood for the building of the brigantines, and generally to aid in prosecuting the war against Mexico.

Cortes gave them all a hearty embrace, and thanked them for their great kindness, especially Chichimeclatecl and Xicotencatl, the latter of whom eventually became a convert to Christianity, and was baptized by father Olmedo with every solemnity, and received the name of Don Lorenzo de Vargas.

In the meantime the preparations for the building of our brigantines were going on very fast; the wood being soon felled and prepared for use with the assistance of the Indians; an excellent soldier named Andreas Nuñez, and Ramirez the elder, an old carpenter who had been lamed by a wound, rendering most efficient services. Matters being thus far advanced, Cortes sent for a quantity of ironwork, anchors, sails, and ropes, from the vessels which had been destroyed at Vera Cruz, and ordered all the smiths of that town to repair to Tlascalla. Above 1000 Indians were despatched thither to transport these things. The cauldrons for boiling and preparing the tar were likewise brought from Vera Cruz, and we were now only in want of the materials for making it, the preparation of which was wholly unknown to the Indians; but here again Cortes was not at a loss, for he picked out four men from among the sailors who understood its preparation, and for that purpose sent them off to a forest of pine trees near Huexotzinco.

Though it may, perhaps, be rather out of place here, I must answer a question which has been put to me by several cavaliers respecting Alonso de Avila, with whom they were well acquainted. They knew that this man, though treasurer of New Spain, was, at the same time, an excellent soldier, and felt more inclination for the life of a warrior than for business; they could not, therefore, imagine why Cortes should exactly have selected him to confer with the Hieronymite brothers at St. Domingo, and that he had not rather chosen some person of more business-like habits; as, for instance, Alonso de Grado, or Juan de Cacares, called the wealthy, or others whose names they mentioned to me. Cortes had no other motive than to get Avila out of the way, because he spoke his mind too freely, and took every occasion to side with us soldiers if he saw we were unjustly dealt with. To this was added, that the latter had fallen out with several of our officers, from a frankness of disposition displeasing to them. And, lastly, Cortes was desirous of conferring the command of a company on Andreas de Tapia, and of appointing Alonso de Grado treasurer, both of which were only possible by removing Avila.

Cortes now determined to march, with the whole of his men, to Tezcuco, as the wood for constructing the brigantines was ready prepared, and we had got rid of Narvaez's men, who made difficulties in all our expeditions, and always argued against any attempt to besiege Mexico, maintaining we were not sufficiently numerous for that purpose; by which means they infected others with their cowardice. Previous to our leaving for Tezcuco, however, various deliberations took place as to which would be the most eligible spot for launching our brigantines. Some of our men maintained that Ayotzinco, near to Chalco, on account of its canals and harbour, was better adapted for this purpose; others, again, preferred Tezcuco, and were of opinion that, once having taken possession of that town, standing as it did in the midst of so many other populous townships, we should be better able to plan our operations against Mexico.

We had scarcely decided in favour of the latter place, when three men arrived with the news from Vera Cruz that a large Spanish vessel had run in there from the Canaries, having on board a quantity of crossbows, muskets, powder, and other ammunition, besides three horses and thirteen soldiers. The owner of the cargo was a certain Juan de Burgos, and the captain of the vessel was named Francisco Medel.

The reader may easily imagine our joy at this news; and if we had previously felt in good spirits for our intended expedition, we now felt the more so on hearing of the arrival of these timely succours. Cortes immediately bargained with Burgos for the whole of the ammunition and cargo, who himself, with Medel and all the passengers, came to our head-quarters, where they met with the kindest reception. Among the passengers there was a certain rich man, named Juan del Espinar, who once lived in Guatimala; further, a certain Sagredo, from Medellin; a Biscayan, named Monjaraz, uncle of the other two of that name serving among us. This Monjaraz had a very beautiful daughter, who subsequently came to Mexico, and was commonly called Monjaraza. But this Monjaraz did not accompany us in any of our expeditions, as he was always suffering from ill health. It was not until we had laid regular siege to Mexico that he came to us in good health, and told us he was desirous of seeing how we carried on this war, and our mode of attacking the Mexicans, of whose bravery he entertained a very mean opinion. On this occasion he mounted to the top of an Indian temple, which was shaped like a tower; from that moment, however, we never saw him again, nor did we ever learn how the Mexicans got at him, or what became of him. Many persons who had known him on the island of St. Domingo saw the hand of God in his sudden death: for they related that he had put his own wife, a most virtuous, excellent, and beautiful woman, to death, without any cause or provocation; and that he had escaped punishment for his crime by proving, through false witnesses, she had attempted to poison him. I must, however, leave these old tales, and begin earnestly to think of our march to Tezcuco.

[Transcriber's Note: Notes to the First Volume, that is, endnotes at the end of this volume, have been included as footnotes under the relevant chapter.]

END OF VOL. I.