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72 campaign standard blessed, and Saint Peter invoked, whereupon the prows were pointed toward the islands of the west. All the vessels were to follow the flagship, whose light should be their guide by night; in case of separation they were to steer for Cape Catoche and thence proceed to Cozumel. 25 The date of departure is generally admitted to be February 18th, but in Cortés, Memorial, 1542, is written 'tardó en esto [fitting out] desde dieciocho dias del mes de Octubre. . . hasta dieciocho dias del mes de Enero, del año de diez y nueve que acabó de salir de la dicha Isla de Cuba, del cabo de Corrientes.' Cortés, Escritos Sueltos, 313. This is wrong, however, for the fleet could not have left Santiago before the date of the instructions; yet it confirms the fact that three months were spent, after leaving Santiago, before the fleet finally left the island. Some of the authors indicate a portion of this time, showing that eight days were spent at Macăco and twelve at Trinidad, leaving seventy-two days for the brief passages along the south coast of Cuba and for the stay at San Cristóbal.

De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, or, as the Spanish translator entitles it, Vida de Hernan Cortés, giving the fullest but also the most partial account of Cortés up to this time, is an anonymous manuscript in Latin, of eleven folio leaves, deposited in the Simancas archives, whence Muñoz obtained a copy, published by Icazbalceta in his Coleccion de Documentos, i. 309-57. It is in a clear hand, with corrections and marginals, evidently by the author. Several points indicate that it formed part of De Orbe Noro, a history of America, written apparently in a series of biographies, to judge from the reference made to a preceding part relating to Columbus, and to later parts on the conquest of Mexico. Muñoz expresses the opinion that the author may be Calvet de Estrella, chronicler of the Indies, mentioned by Nic. Antonio as the writer of the manuscripts De Rebus Gestis Vaccæe Castri, in the Colegio del Sacro Monte de Granada. This title induced him to name the present document De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii. The supposition is warranted by the style and by the evident date; for references indicate that it was written during the lifetime of several companions of Cortés. The fragment begins with the hero's birth and ends at his departure with the fleet from Cuba. Although the facts related conform, as a rule, to Gomara's version, a number of authorities have been consulted, some of them no longer extant, chiefly with a view to extol the character and career of the hero, and to elaborate incidents into tiresome prolixity.