Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/310

270 In another ship Cortes despatched Alonzo de Mendoza and Diego de Ordas to Spain for some purpose he did not tell, and afterwards we only heard that when the bishop of Burgos told Ordas to his face that we were a parcel of villains and traitors, Ordas stood up stoutly for us. In a third ship Cortes sent Alonzo de Avila to Santo Domingo to give to the governors of the islands account of what we had done—Cortes choosing Avila to get him out of the way, for he spoke his mind very freely and sided with us soldiers in every difficulty, as I have already told on page 235, if he thought us unjustly dealt with.

Here the reader may ask how without money could Cortes send Ordas to Spain, for in Spain, as elsewhere, money is a necessity. And how could he send still another ship to buy horses in Jamaica? I can only say that when we were fleeing from Mexico on the night of our great sorrow, much gold, as I have told, was left in a heap, and many of the soldiers, especially the horsemen and followers of Narvaez, stowed away treasures from the heap. Then, besides, many of the eighty Tlaxcalans who were laden with gold were in the vanguard and got safely over the bridges. It is clear that not all the gold was lost on the causeway, but many loads saved. We poor soldiers who had no command, but only lived to obey, and on that night were trying to save