The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. 2

1/25/22, 8:50 PM The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo written by himself, containing a true an…
to lay before his majesty our previous despatches, but had also misrepresented things to
him, in order to favour his friends Velasquez and Tapia, to the latter of whom he had
promised the hand of his niece Doña Petronella de Fonseca. Tapiahad certainly produced
papers relative to his appointment, of the genuineness of which there could really be no
doubt, and we hadindeed perused them with deep veneration, and we would immediately
have obeyed the instructions they contained if we had consideredTapia a proper person to
fill the important office of governor; but ashe was neither a soldier nor a man of sufficient
mind and determination of character, nor possessed of talents requisite for a viceroy, we
found ourselves necessitated to inform his majesty of the whole stateof affairs, which was
the real object of this present humble address ofhis majesty's faithful and obedient servants.
We then prayed hismajesty to decide in these matters, and particularly requested that he
would not allow the bishop of Burgos in any way to interfere in matterswhich concerned
Cortes and ourselves, as otherwise all further conquests we contemplated in New Spain
would be interrupted; norshould we even be able to maintain peace in the provinces that
were subdued. As a proof of the bishop's enmity towards us, we mentioned that he had
forbidden the two harbour masters of Seville, Pedro deIsasaga and Juan Lopez de Recalte,
to allow any arms or soldiers which were destined for Cortes or our army in general, to
leave thatplace. We then gave his majesty an account of the recent campaign ofPanuco,
how the inhabitants had been obliged to sue for peace, andhad declared themselves vassals
of his majesty; what terrible battlesthey had fought with Cortes, and how they had killed all
the officersand soldiers which Garay had sent thither from time to time. Thiscampaign, we
went on to say, cost Cortes above 60,000 pesos, whichhe had paid out of his own private
purse, the reimbursement of whichhe had in vain solicited from the royal treasurers; that
Garay wasfitting out a new armament in Jamaica destined for the province ofPanuco, but it
was advisable that his majesty should issue orders forhim to postpone that expedition until
we should have completely subduedthe country, that he might not again sacrifice the lives
of hismen to no purpose, and create an insurrection in the country, whichwould be sure to
ensue if he arrived there beforehand, as the Indians,and particularly the Mexicans, would
immediately conclude that therewas no unanimity in the operations of the Spanish generals;
conspiracieswould be formed, and the whole country would rise up intoopen rebellion.
These and many other things we wrote to his majesty, nor was Cortes' pen idle on this
occasion, for he also sent the emperor an account of every circumstance in a private
despatch, which contained twenty pages, and I know their contents pretty well, as I read
them all through with great attention. Among other things, he solicited his majesty's
permission to proceed to Cuba in order to take the viceroyDiego Velasquez prisoner, and
send him to Spain, there to stand his trialfor having sent persons to murder him, Cortes, and
for having upon thewhole endeavoured to confuse the affairs of New Spain.
[Pg 134]
With these despatches, the money, and other valuable matters,Quiñones and Avila set sail
from Vera Cruz on the 20th of December, 1522, and safely passed through the straits of
Bahama. On their voyage two of the three tigers broke lose and made their escape, after
wounding several of the crew; it was then determined that the thirdshould be killed, which
was in fact the most ferocious of the three.Without any further accident they arrived off the
island of Tercera,where they dropped anchor. During their stay on this island, Quiñones,
who had a vast idea of his courage and was of a very amorous disposition,got into a quarrel
about some female, and received such aterrible blow on the head that he died a few days
after of the consequences,so that Avila had to transact all our business himself.
[Pg 135]
The two vessels then continued their voyage, but had not advancedfar beyond the island of
Tercera when they fell in with the redoubtedFrench corsair Jean Florin, who attacked and
took both vessels, carryingAvila with the crews to France.
About this same time Jean Florin captured another vessel, boundfrom St. Domingo, having
on board above 20,000 pesos, besides aquantity of pearls, sugar, and a great number of cow
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