Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 1.djvu/495

 Page 132 (1).—Some thought it was the Holy Ghost in the form of this dove: "That it was the Holy Ghost which had designed to appear in the form of that bird, in order to bring consolation to the sad and afflicted" (De Rebus Gestia, MS.); a conjecture which seems very reasonable to Pizarro y Orellana, since the expedition was to "redound so much to the spread of the Catholic faith, and the Castilian monarchy!"—Varones Ilustres, p. 70.

Page 132 (2).—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 2.

Page 132 (3).—Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 203.

Page 134 (1).—De Rebus Gestis, MS.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 3, 4.—Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 27.

Page 134 (2).—Solis has found a patent of nobility for this lady also,—"doncella noble y recatada." (Historia de la Conquista de Méjico [Paris, 1838], lib. 1, cap. 9.) Las Casas treats her with less ceremony. "Una hermana de un Juan Xuarez, gente pobre."—Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 17.

Page 135 (1).—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 4.—Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., ubi supra.—De Rebus Gestis, MS.—Memorial de Benito Martinez, capellan de D. Velasquez contra H. Cortés, MS.

Page 135 (2).—Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, MS., ubi supra.

Page 136 (1).—Ibid., loc. cit.—Memorial de Martinez, MS.

Page 136 (2).—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 4. Herrera tells a silly story of his being unable to swim, and throwing himself on a plank, which, after being carried out to sea, was washed ashore with him at flood tide.—Hist. General, dec. 1, lib. 9, cap. 8.

Page 137 (1).—Las Casas, who remembered Cortés at this time, "so poor and lowly that he would have gladly received any favour from the least of Velasquez's attendants," treats the story of the bravado with contempt. "For if he (Velasquez) had suspected in Cortés the least trace of contumacy or presumption, he would have hanged him, or at least expelled him from the country and never permitted him to show his face there again."—Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 27.

Page 138 (1).—The treasurer used to boast he had passed some two-and-twenty years in the wars of Italy. He was a shrewd personage, and Las Casas, thinking that country a slippery school for morals, warned the governor, he says, more than once "to beware of the twenty-two years in Italy."—Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 113.

Page 139 (1).—Declaracion de Puertocarrero, MS.—Carta de Vera Cruz, MS.—Probanza en Villa Segura, MS. (4 de Oct., 1520).

Page 141 (1).—Declaration de Puertocarrero, MS.—Gomara, Crónica, cap. 7.—Velasquez soon after obtained from the crown authority to colonise the new countries, with the title of adelantado over them. The instrument was dated at Barcelona, Nov. 13, 1518. (Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 3, cap. 8.) Empty privileges! Las Casas gives a caustic etymology of the title of adelantado, so often granted to the Spanish discoverers. "Commissioners (Adelantados), in the sense that their commission is one of calamity and destruction to a peaceful people."— Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. 3, cap. 117.

Page 143 (1).—"The character of Cortés," says the anonymous biographer, "greedy of power and strongly self-confident, together with the over-elaborate equipment of the fleet, gave him pause. Consequently Velasquez began to fear that, if Cortés set out with that fleet, neither