Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/32

12 and he reached the shore swimming, with certain valuable papers tied in a packet on the top of his head. He then betook himself to Juan Xuarez, from whom he procured clothes and arms, and again took sanctuary in the church. These repeated escapes suggest sympathetic collusion on the part of his gaolers.

Velasquez professed to be won over by such bravery and resource, and sent mutual friends to make peace. But Cortes, although he married Catalina, refused the Governor's overtures and would not even speak to him, until, some Indian troubles breaking out, and Velasquez being at his headquarters outside the town, he somewhat alarmed the Governor by suddenly appearing before him late one night, fully armed, saying that he had come to make peace and to offer his services. They shook hands and spent a long time in conversation together, and slept that night in the same bed, where they were found next morning by Diego de Orellana who came to announce to the Governor that Cortes had fled from the church. This version is accepted by the author of De Rebtis Gestis without reservation; Solis, while omitting the details, also dwells upon the intimate friendship existing between the two men.

Las Casas tells a different tale, in which no mention is made of the refusal to marry Catalina Xuarez as having any part in the quarrel, but asserts rather that Cortes was secretary to Velasquez, and that the new^s of the arrival of certain appellate judges in Hispaniola having reached Cuba, all the malcontents in the colony, and those disaffected towards Velasquez, began secretly to collect material on which to base accusations against him, and that Cortes, acting with them, had been chosen to carry this information to the judges. The Governor was informed of the plot, and arrested Cortes in the act of embarking, with the incriminating papers in his possession, and would have ordered him to be hanged on the spot but