Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/41

Rh and that after he had heard mass, Diego Velasquez came down to the port to see the armada off. Las Casas however says that Velasquez only heard very early in the morning (from the butcher probably), that the preparations had been so rapidly pushed forward, and that rising from bed he made haste to the port accompanied by all the citizens in a state of great wonder and excitement. As soon as the Governor appeared, Cortes approached within a bow-shot of the shore in a boat full of his friends, all fully armed, and, in reply to the Governor's upbraidings and reproaches for such unseemly haste in his leave-taking, replied that, "some things were better done first and thought about afterwards and this was one of them"; after which bit of exculpating philosophy he returned to his ship, and the armada sailed away. Although Gomara, in whom we hear Cortes himself, agrees essentially with Las Casas in thus describing the departure, the story of the dialogue between Cortes in the midst of a boat-load of armed friends and Velasquez, helpless on the quay, surrounded by excited colonists, savours more of fiction than of fact. The simple and natural version of Bernal Diaz is more in consonance with Cortes's character, and he doubtless exercised scrupulous care to avoid provoking the testy Governor. Aware of the intrigues against him and the uncertainty of his position, his safety lay in pushing forward his preparations with unostentatious haste, masking his determination under an astute display of increased deference towards his suspicious superior. Although Cortes had evidently secured his captains, and could count on his crews, the moment for an act of open defiance was not yet, nor did Velasquez, in a letter dated November 17, 1519, to the licenciate Figueroa which was to be delivered to Charles V., allege any such, though he would hardly have failed to make the most of each item in his arraignment of his rebellious lieutenant. Stopping at Macaca,