Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/522

402 And the cost of this glory and advantage, how insignificant it was! Four of his own men and fifteen of the enemy, including a captain, beside a number wounded on both sides; this was all.

In his report to the king Cortés seeks to gloss over the occurrence by stating that only two men were killed, intimating that it was on both sides. There was a deeper reason for this and other falsehoods than the wish to hide the bloody result of fratricidal conflict. He was still doubtful as to the view taken in Spain of his conduct, and could not afford to prejudice his case by laying bare every misfortune. He was aware that even to the impartial observer he must appear as a defaulter in the duty owing by him to a principal, and in the agreement or partnership which he had formed, and also as the usurper of an expedition fitted out in the name and under the auspices, at least, of Velazquez. His plea rested on his brave and masterly conquest of a rich country, and on his election to independent command by a party formed on the pretence that the superior interests of the sovereign demanded the immediate subjugation of the country. But his acceptance of that command was a breach of duty and of contract; the right of the party to act as it did was doubtful, and its pretence hasty, or perhaps usurped from Velazquez, who had first entertained it; while the commission to undertake the conquest had already