Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 2.djvu/429

 Page 16 (2).— See the letter of Peter Martyr to his noble friend and pupil, the Marquis de Mondejar, written two months after the arrival of the vessel from Vera Cruz.—Opus Epist., ep. 650.

Page 17 (2).— Velasquez, it appears, had sent home an account of the doings of Cortés and of the vessel which touched with the treasures at Cuba, as early as October, 1 5 1 9.—Carta de Velasquez al Lic. Figueroa, MS., Nov. 17, 1519.

Page 18 (1).— The instrument was dated at Barcelona, Nov. 13, 1518. Cortés left St. Jago the 18th of the same month.—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 2, lib. 3, cap. 11.

Page 18 (2).— Gomara (Crónica, cap. 96) and Robertson (History of America, vol. ii. pp. 304, 466) consider that the new dignity of adelantado stimulated the governor to this enterprise. By a letter of his own writing in the Muñoz collection, it appears he had begun operations some months previous to his receiving notice of his appointment.—Carta de Velasquez al senor de Xêvres, Isla Fernandina, MS., Octubre 12, 1519.

Page 18 (3).— Carta de Velasquez al Lie. Figueroa, MS., Nov. 17, 1519.

Page 18 (4).— The person of Narvaez is thus whimsically described by Diaz: "He was tall, stout-limbed, with a large head and red beard, an agreeable presence, a voice deep and sonorous, as if it rose from a cavern. He was a good horseman and valiant."—Hist, de la Conquista, cap. 205.

Page 19 (1).—The danger of such a result is particularly urged in a memorandum of the licentiate Ayllon.—Carta al Emperador, Guaniguanico, Marzo 4, 1 520, MS.

Page 20 (1).— The great fleet under Ovando, 1501, in which Cortés had intended to embark for the New World.—Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 1, lib. 4, cap. 11.

Page 21 (1).—This report is to be found among the MSS. of Vargas Ponce, in the archives of the Royal Academy of History. It embraces a hundred and ten folio pages, and is entitled, "El Processo y Pesquiza hecha por la Real Audiencia de la Española é tierra nuevamente descubierta. Par el Consejo de su Majestad."

Page 23 (1).—Oviedo, Hist, de las Ind, MS., lib. 33, cap. 47.—Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 117-120.

Page 23 (2).—"Our commander said so many kind things to them," says Diaz, "and anointed their fingers so plentifully with gold, that, though they came like roaring lions, they went home perfectly tame."—Hist, de la Conquista, cap. 111.

Page 24 (1).— Hist, de la Conquista, cap. 112.

Page 25 (1).—Ibid., cap. 111. Oviedo says that Montezuma called a council of his nobles, in which it was decided to let the troops of Narvaez into the capital, and then to crush them at one blow, with those of Cortés! (Hist, de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 47.) Considering the awe in which the latter alone were held by the Mexicans, a more improbable tale could not be devised. But nothing is too improbable for history,—though, according to Boileau's maxim, it may be for fiction.

Page 27 (1).—In the Mexican edition of the letters of Cortés, it is called five hundred men. (Rel. Seg. ap. Lorenzana, p. 122.) But this was more than his whole Spanish force. In Ramusio's version of the same letter, printed as early as 1565, the number is stated as in the text. (Navigation et Viaggi, fol. 244.) In an instrument without date, containing the affidavits of certain witnesses as to the management of the royal fifth by Cortés, it is said there were one hundred and