Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/39

Rh to Cortes. These instructions are dated October 23, 15 18, and consist of thirty items of minute and tedious directions and counsels, covering every imaginable emergency. They are quoted in full in the Documentos Ineditos del Archivo de Indias in pages 59-79, inclusive, in the fourth volume of Orozco y Berra. The document opens by stating that the glory of God and the spread of the faith being the chief objects of the undertaking, only God-fearing and loyal men should be allowed to compose it; swearing and blasphemy against God, the blessed Virgin, and the saints are provided against by the severest penalties; the men are not to take concubines with them nor to give scandal by communication with native women; nor is gambling to be permitted in any form, dice being forbidden on board the ships. The exhaustive instructions concerning exploration and trading contain no mention of any authorisation to colonise, but very full powers are granted the commander to cover unforeseen cases.

Cortes threw himself heart and soul into the new enterprise which offered him exactly the opportunity in search of which he had come to the Indies fourteen years before. The mutual recriminations, afterwards indulged in, so obscure the facts that it is difficult to discover exactly what share of the expense of the equipment was borne by each, but of Cortes it must be said that he staked everyrthing he possessed or could procure on the venture, even raising loans by mortgages on his property. Bernal Diaz states that the amount he expended was four thousand dollars in gold, besides supplying many provisions. In the sworn statement of Puertocarrero made in La Coruña, April, 1520, the witness said that Cortes had paid two thirds of the total costs. Gomara describes Velasquez as stingy and timid, wishing to fit out the armada with the least possible risk to himself, and that he proposed to halve the cost.

The appointment of Cortes to such an important