Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/45

 

HE entire fleet sailed for the island of Cozumel on February 10, 1519, and the first vessel to land was the one commanded by Pedro de Alvarado. Alvarado began his career by an act of disobedience to orders, characteristic of his headstrong and cruel temperament, which procured him a severe reprimand from the commander, who arrived two days later and found that the Indians had all been frightened away by the Spaniards' violence in plundering their town and taking some of them prisoners. Cortes's policy in dealing with the natives was forcibly declared at the very outset, for the pilot Camacho, who had brought the vessel to land before the others, he clapped into irons, for disobeying his orders, and he rebuked Alvarado, explaining to him that his measures were fatal to the success of the expedition. The Indian prisoners were not only released, but each received gifts, and all were assured through the interpreters, Melchor and Julian, that they should suffer no further harm, and that they should therefore go and call back the others who had fled. Everything that had been stolen from the town was restored, and the fowls and other provisions which had been eaten were all paid for liberally. Discipline was enforced also among the Spaniards, and seven sailors, who were found guilty of stealing some bacon from a soldier, were sentenced to be publicly whipped.

The opinion that Cortes's followers formed a lawless