de Caceres his house-steward, who after the
conquest of Mexico was considered a man of great wealth. Having ordered
all these things, he commanded us to hold ourselves in readiness for
embarking, and to distribute the horses among the vessels, for which the
necessary quantity of maise and hay had been provided.

For memory's sake I will here likewise describe the horses and mares
which we took with us on our expedition. Cortes had a dark chesnut
stallion, which died afterwards at St. Juan de Ulua. Pedro de Alvarado
and Hernando Lopez d'Avila had jointly an excellent brown mare, which
had been broken-in for the field of battle as well as for tournaments.
After our arrival in New Spain, Alvarado bought Lopez's share, or
perhaps took forcible possession of it. Alonso Hernandez Puertocarrero
had a grey-coloured mare, which Cortes had purchased for him with the
golden borders of his state-robe, it was capitally trained for the field
of battle. Juan Velasquez de Leon's mare was of the same colour, a noble
and powerful animal, full of fire and eager for battle: we commonly
termed it the "short tail."

Christobal de Oli had a dark brown fine-spirited horse. Francisco de
Montejo and Alonso de Avila had between them a sorel-coloured horse, but
of little use in battle. Francisco de Morla had likewise a dark chesnut
stallion, one full of fire and wonderfully swift. The light-coloured
horse of Juan de Escalante was not worth much. The grey-coloured mare of
Diego de Ordas, which would never foal, was neither very swift. Gonzalo
Dominiguez had a small dark-brown nag, a very swift and noble animal.
Also the brown-coloured horse of Pedro Gonzalez de Truxillo was a swift
animal. Moron, who was a native of Vaimo, had a small horse which was
pretty well trained. Vaena, of Trinidad, had a darkish-coloured horse,
though a bad leaper. The light-coloured chesnut galloway of De Lares
was, on the other hand, a splendid animal and a capital runner.

Ortiz, the musician, and a certain Bartolome Garcia, who had applied
himself to the art of mining, had between them a very good dark-coloured
horse, which they named the Arriero (mule-driver,) and was one of the
best animals of the whole corps. Juan Sedeno, of the Havannah, had a
fine chesnut mare, which foaled on board. This Sedeno was considered to
be the most wealthy man amongst us; for he had a ship of his own, a
horse, a few negroes to attend upon him, and his own lading of cassave
and cured b