These Steps Gave Great Offence To The Faction Of Velasquez, Insomuch That
They Used Many Mutinous Expressions, And Were Almost Ready To Proceed To
Acts Of Violence.
They declared that they would not submit to the usurped
authority of Cortes, being resolved to return to Cuba, according to the
orders and instructions of Velasquez.
Cortes declared that he had no
desire to detain any against their inclinations, even if he should remain
alone. This pacified many of the malcontents; but Juan Velasquez de Leon,
Diego de Ordas, Escobar, Escudero, and some others were so violent in
their opposition, that Cortes was obliged to have them arrested, and they
were detained for some time in irons. By a private concert with Cortes,
Juan de Escalente demanded by our authority, that the instructions from
Velasquez should be produced, that we might be enabled to lay a detailed
account of the whole proceedings before the king for our justification.
The tenor of these was, "To return as soon as we had procured all the gold
which could be had." This appeared afterwards to have been a very
necessary precaution, from the steps which were taken against us by Don
Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, bishop of Burgos and archbishop of Rossano.
[1] Clavigero denominates this part of the Mexican empire by the
incommunicable name of Chalchiuhcuecan. - E.
[2] In the work of Bernal Diaz, the names of these two Mexican chiefs are
Tendile and Pitaipitoque. We have here adopted the orthography of
Clavigero in preference, because he appears to have perfectly
understood the Mexican language; and shall continue to do so in the
sequel without farther notice, as often as his work enables us to do
it with certainty - E.
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