Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/298

274 Vasquez de Ayllon, with powers to require and order Diego Velasquez not to despatch the armada. Upon his arrival, he found Diego Velasquez and all those armed people at the point of the island of Fernandina, ready to sail, and he required them, and those composing the armada, not to depart, because Your Highness would be badly served, and he threatened them with many penalties, notwithstanding which, and in spite of all the licentiate required and ordered, Velasquez still sent the armada. The licentiate, Ayllon, had come with them thinking to prevent the harm which would follow from the arrival of it, for it was notorious to him, and to everybody, that the armada came with evil intentions.

I sent this cleric to Narvaez with a letter of mine, in which I told him I had learned from the cleric, and those who came with him, that he was captain of the armada,