Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/609

Rh rather convenient to Cortés, at least, who had a fancy for adjusting facts and figures to suit his schemes. 'Perdido se todo el oro y joyas y ropa,' etc. Cortés, Cartas, 135. It had been confided to Tlascaltecs, and was nearly all lost, says their chief. ''Camargo, Hist. Tlax''., 169-70. The officers testified afterward before public notary: 'Se perdió todo el dicho oro é joyas de SS. AA., é mataron la yegua que lo traia.' Lejalde, Probanza, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 425. Two witnesses during the residencia of Cortés stated that the general had two mares, one given to carry the royal treasures and the other laden with his own. The latter being lost, he claimed the other to be his, and in this manner appropriated 45,000 pesos or more which belonged to the king. Cortés, Residencia, i. 69, 101-2. Not long after the retreat he called on all to declare, under penalty, what gold they had saved of that taken from the unappropriated piles. From those who did so the treasures were taken, although it was understood that they had been given to them. All this Cortés kept. Id., 101-2, 241-2; ii. 402. Many refused to surrender, and since the leaders had also secured shares from the common pile, the order to reveal possession thereof was not enforced, says Bernal Diaz. He adds that one third was to be retained by the possessor as a reward. Cortés kept as a forced loan what had been surrendered. ''Hist. Verdad''., 117-18. The loss of treasure, that thrown away by carriers and pressed soldiers, or sunken with their bodies, has been estimated at from several hundred thousand pesos to over two millions, in the values of that time; to which Wilson sarcastically objects, that 'nothing was really lost but the imaginary treasure, now grown inconveniently large, and which had to be accounted for to the emperor. The Conquistador was too good a soldier to hazard his gold; it was therefore in the advance, and came safely off.' ''Conq. Mex''., 412-13.

Deeply stricken was Cortés, and bitterly did he repent of the mistakes which had contributed to this sad result: of having left Alvarado in charge to follow his rash bent; of having treated Montezuma and his chiefs so inconsiderately on his arrival; and, above all, the faulty arrangements for the flight by night. His had been the greatest conquest yet undertaken in the New World, and his the greatest disaster. The men of Narvaez had suffered most, partly, it is said, because they were most eager to burden themselves with gold, but rather because they were inexperienced, and assigned chiefly to the rear. It was the gaps in the ranks of his veterans that touched Cortés most. Gone was the dear dandy Francisco de Salcedo, whom slovenly comrades should no more trouble! The cavalry, so sadly depleted, missed