Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/446

326 who was brave and prudent, as well as loyal, and with him Pedro de Ircio, a former equerry, of insinuating manners and gossiping tongue, whom Sandoval elevated to a commanding position.

Grado was immediately sent up to Mexico under a native guard, and when he arrived, with hands tied and a noose round his neok, the soldiers derided him, while Cortés felt half inclined to hang the fellow. After a few days' exposure in the stocks he was released, and soon his smooth persuasion paved once more a way to the favor of his general, with whom he became so reconciled as to obtain the office of contador not long afterward.

Among the instructions to Sandoval was one to send to Mexico two shipwrights with ship-building implements, also chains, iron, sails, rope, compass, and everything needful to fit out four vessels which had been placed on the stocks shortly after the seizure of the emperor. The object was to afford a means for the ready movement of troops and for escape in case of an uprising, when the bridges would doubtless be raised. In asking Montezuma for aid to fell and prepare timber, it was pretended that it was for pleasureboats wherewith to entertain him. Under the able direction of Martin Lopez aided by Alonso Nuñez, the master carpenters, they were completed within a few weeks, and provided with four guns and tiers of oars, affording transport for three hundred men.