Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/59

Rh Mexico, and the most Illustrious of the conquerors, among which number was myself, settled in this province, I did not forget to look for, and to my joy find, my orange trees. I transplanted them and they flourished most uncommonly, and all the oranges of New Spain are descendants of my plants. I know well it will be said such old tales are quite out of character here, so I will tell no more of them.

Boarding our ships again we set sail for Cuba, and after more than forty days of weather, sometimes fair and sometimes foul, we arrived at Santiago. When Diego Velasquez saw the gold we had brought, well worth four thousand dollars, he was highly pleased, for with that already given over by Alvarado, the amount was now twenty thousand dollars. Some made the sum less, some even more. Officers of the king took the royal fifth, and were so minded as to the six hundred axes, but when these were brought out and seen to be merely a good kind of copper there was a good laugh at us and much broad-spread fun at our zeal in bartering.