i. 370, eagerly elaborates the miraculous features in the

appearance of this Aaron, who is to be the mouth-piece of his Moses.

[122] Bernal Diaz says the 4th, which is rather close reckoning, according to his own account, for two days are required to reach Cozumel from Cape San Antonio, nine days are consumed by Ordaz in waiting for the captives, and four days for repairing Escalante’s leaky vessel. This alone brings us from February 18th, the date of leaving Cape San Antonio, to March 5th, without counting a probable day or two for preparing, starting, and returning.

[123] A greyhound bitch, really of great service to the hunters. Bernal Diaz, _Hist. Verdad._, 20, starts Escobar from Punta de las Mujeres. _Vetancvrt_, _Teatro Mex._, Pt. iii. 112. Cogolludo, _Hist. Yucathan_, 29, while adopting on hearsay the more general supposition that a missing vessel is found here, follows Diaz in the account of the exploring vessel. Gomara, _Hist. Mex._, 25-6, and Herrera, dec. ii. lib. iv. cap. xi., evidently attributes the name Escondido to the finding of the missing vessel.

[124] ‘Mille quingentorum passuum, ait Alaminus nauclerus, et domorum quinque ac viginti millium ... egregie lapidibus et calce fabrefectæ.’ _Peter Martyr_, _De Insvlis_, 14. ‘A poco mas de media legua que subian por el, (river) vieron vn gran pueblo con las casas de adoues y los tejados de paja, el qual estaua cercado de madera, con bien gruessa pared y almenas, y troneras para flechar.’ Halls and temples are also referred to: ‘Mas no tiene veinte y cinco mil casas.’ _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 26-37. ‘Punta de los Palmares [where Grijalva also camped], que estava del pueblo de Tabasco otro media legua.’ _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 20. Montanus, _Nieuwe Weereld_, 77, follows Gomara and Martyr, in calling the pueblo Potonchan; so does Helps, _Span. Conq._, ii. 260-4, who frequently reveals the superficiality of his researches. Brasseur de Bourbourg calls it Centla. _Hist. Nat. Civ._, iv. 58. The stockade defences are described in detail in _Solis_, _Hist. Mex._, i. 93-4.

[125] ‘Mandò poner en cada vn batel tres tiros.’ Ávila received one hundred soldiers, including ten cross-bowmen, and took a route leading across creeks and marshes to the rear of the pueblo. _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 20. ‘Señalo Cortés dos capitanes con cada cienticinquenta Españoles. Que fueron Alonso di Auila, y Pedro de Aluarado.’ A ford was found half a league above the camp. _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 27; Peter Martyr, dec. iv. cap. vii., sends one hundred and fifty men by different routes. The testimony favors the supposition that Ávila forded the river.

[126] Bernal Diaz, _Hist. Verdad._, 20, estimates that twelve thousand warriors defended the town. He himself received a wound in the thigh. Gomara, _Hist. Mex._, 29, leaves only four hundred in charge of the place. Peter Martyr, dec. iv. cap. vii., allows the horses to share in the battle, and places the warriors at four thousand. Las Casas, _Hist. Ind._, iv. 474, exaggerates, of course, the Spanish excesses, but without giving definite statements.

[127] ‘Intẽtaba hacer lo que despues hizo,’ says Vetancvrt, _Teatro Mex._, pt. iii. 112, in reference to the later effected independence of Velazquez. The mode of taking possession is thus described: Advancing with drawn sword and shield to a large ceiba-tree in the court-yard, Cortés struck it three times, and announced that he took possession for the king, and would defend his right against all comers. The soldiers thereupon shouted their approval, declaring that they would sustain their captain in his challenge. _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 21. Zamacois compares this form with others used elsewhere. _Hist. Méj._, x. 988.

[128] The _Carta del Ayunt. de Vera Cruz_, in _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 15, refers to a certain intercourse held with natives; on the third day the exploring parties start. This intercourse is spoken of by Gomara, _Hist. Mex._, 30, as the visit of twenty leading men to promise food and presents, but really to spy. The Spaniards were encouraged to enter the interior to barter food. _Torquemada_, i. 374; _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 21. Alvarado, Ávila, and Sandoval are sent, each with eighty Spaniards and some Cuban carriers, to explore by three routes, and to get supplies for payment only. _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 31; _Herrera_, dec. ii. lib. iv. cap. xi. Three parties sent out. _Tapia_, _Relacion_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, ii. 559. Four captains sent, with over two hundred men. _Carta del Ayunt._, loc. cit.

[129] Gomara, _Hist. Mex._, 31, states that one of the captains took refuge in a building in Centla town, and was there joined by the other two. All three now retreat to camp, whither two fleet Cubans run for aid. Herrera, Torquemada, and Brasseur de Bourbourg follow him. Before Cortés set out, says Cogolludo, _Hist. Yucathan_, 32, he had repelled an attack on his own camp.

[130] ‘Señalo treze de a cauallo,’ who are named as Olid, Alvarado, Puertocarrero, Escalante, Montejo, Ávila, Velazquez de Leon, Morla, Láres the good horseman to distinguish him from another Láres, Gonzalo Dominguez, Moron of Bazamo, and Pedro Gonzalez of Trujillo, Cortés being the thirteenth. _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 22; Solis, _Hist. Mex._, i. 106, says fifteen horses, but in the _Carta del Ayunt. de V. Cruz_, in _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 16, the number decreases to ten.

[131] Gomara says the force mustered 500 men, 13 horses and 6 guns; Herrera, 400 men and 12 horses. The alférez was Antonio de Villaroel.

[132] This was a favorite movement of Cortés, and as such Tapia and the _Carta del Ayunt. de V. Cruz_ accept it, while Bernal Diaz and most writers state that the swampy ground required a circuit.

[133] An estimate based probably upon the strength of the regular Aztec _Xiquipilli_, with which the conquerors were soon to become acquainted. See _Native Races_, ii. 425. Tapia even raises the number to six squadrons. _Relacion_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, ii. 560.

[134] Cortés, on coming up and being told of this, shouted, ‘Onward, companions! God is with us!’ _Relacion_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, ii. 559-60. Gomara, who fervently adopts the story, states that the rider was one of the apostles, in the person of Morla. ‘Todos dixeron, que vieron por tres vezes al del cauallo rucio picado ... y que era Santiago nuestro patron. Fernando Cortés mas queria que fuesse san Pedro, su especial auogado ... aun tambien los Indios lo notaron.... De los prisioneros que se tomarõ se supo esto.’ _Hist. Mex._, 32-3. Pizarro y Orellana, _Varones Ilvstres_, 72-3, gives arguments to show that it could have been none other than Santiago, as the patron of Spaniards. After a struggle with his pious fears, Bernal Diaz ventures to observe that Gomara may be right, but ‘I, unworthy sinner, was not graced to see either of those glorious apostles.’ Testimony was taken about the battle, and had this occurred it would have been spoken of. ‘I say that our victory was by the hand of our Lord Jesus Christ, for in that battle the Indians were so numerous that they could have buried us with handfuls of earth.’ _Hist. Verdad._, 22-3. Las Casas scouts the story as a fabrication of Cortés, written down by ‘his servant Gomara,’ in ‘his false history.’ _Hist. Ind._, iv. 477.

[135] The bishop forgets the sermon before the idols cast down at Cozumel.

[136] Two Spaniards fell, and over 800 Indians lay dead, so said their countrymen. _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 22-3. Over 70 Spaniards were wounded, and more than 300 Indians were slain in the pursuit alone. Over 100 men fell sick from heat and bad water, but all recovered. _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 33. Herrera, dec. ii. lib. iv. cap. xi., allows no killed among the Spaniards, while over 1000 Indians are laid low. _Torquemada_, i, 375. Three Spaniards are killed and 60 wounded. _Vetancvrt_, _Teatro Mex._, pt. iii. 113. The Ayuntamiento of Vera Cruz, in its letter to the Emperor, 10 July, 1519, for obvious reasons lowers the figures to twenty wounded Spaniards, of whom none died, and to 220 dead Indians, out of 40,000 engaged. _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 17. Finally comes Las Casas with the other extreme of 30,000 souls, said to have been cruelly slaughtered in this first great battle of Cortés. _Hist. Ind._, iv. 477. Quite a list of misdeeds are here raked up, or invented rather, against the Spaniards in the _West-Indische Spieghel_, Amsterdam, 1624, a curious little quarto, designed for Dutch traders in America, and dedicated to their West India Company. The author is called Athanasium Inga. ‘_Peruaen_, uyt Cusco gheboren, die dit alles, soo door onder vindinghe als door transpositie en overset tinghe sijnder Voor-Ouderen, hier te Lande ons overghedraghen heeft,’ says Wachter, in the preface. The volume opens with a lengthy description of the Antilles, but the remaining text is wholly devoted to the Spanish colonies on the main, mingled without order, and interspersed with special chapters on navigation and coast routes for the benefit of traders. Beside the usual description of physical and political geography, with particular reference to natural resources and aboriginal customs, several voyages are described, mainly to point out sailing directions and the progress of discovery, while the conquest period is told with some minuteness, but garbled with the idea of exposing the avarice and cruelty of the hated Spaniards. This is also the object of nearly all the neatly engraved copper-plates. The map extends Hudson Bay very close to the Pacific coast, where a faintly outlined strait is visible some distance above California Island. The part relating to Mexico, including some brief references to Central America, occupies about one third of the volume, and treats chiefly of the Conquest. The book is remarkable for its black-letter text, with marginals in the same type, and for its title-page, with the figures of ‘Montenchuma’ and ‘Atabaliba’ surrounded by battle-scenes and Indian industrial operations.

[137] ‘Y pusose nombre a aquel pueblo, Santa Maria de la Vitoria, è assi se llama agora la villa de Tabasco.’ _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 24. ‘Potanchanum dicitur ab accolis oppidum.... Victoriam nostri appellarunt.’ _Peter Martyr_, _De Insvlis_, 14; copied in _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 36. Referring to the battle of Centla, Clavigero writes: ‘e per memoria vi fondarono poi una piccola città, col nome della _Madonna della Vittoria_, la quale fu per lungo tempo la capitale di quella Provincia.... Si spopolò del tutto verso la metà del secolo passato.’ A later foundation received the name of Villahermosa. _Storia Mess._, iii. 11. This is based on a statement by Bernal Diaz, _Hist. Verdad._, 22, and to reconcile this with the note above, it must be supposed that the Nonohualca capital was removed to the site of the battle-field when the Spaniards settled. Other authors either confound the points or avoid them by a vague reference. Victoria was founded by Cortés in 1519. _Alcedo_, _Dic._, v. 305. It is strange that the chief town is not referred to under its native name, for Potonchan is evidently a mistake by Peter Martyr.