shore for that purpose. When he heard of the valuable present which we
sent to his majesty, and of the agents we had selected for the purpose,
he grew excessively angry, and threw out the most heavy curses against
Cortes, against his own private secretary Duero, and the treasurer
Almador de Lares. He then immediately ordered two small but very swift
sailing vessels to be fitted out, and furnished with as great a number
of men and firearms as could be got together at the moment. These
vessels were given in command of two officers named Gabriel de Rojas and
Guzman, who were ordered to repair to the Havannah, and to capture the
vessel which conveyed our agents and the gold.

Both vessels arrived, after two days' sail, in the Bahama roads, and
made every inquiry of the fishermen and coasters whether they had seen a
ship of considerable tonnage pass that way. All the accounts they
received went to show that she must have left the roads, as the wind had
constantly been favorable: they, therefore, tacked up and down a
considerable time, but, discovering no trace of her, they returned to
Santiago.

If the first accounts had made Diego Velasquez dispirited, he was now
the more so when he found the ship had escaped. His friends now advised
him to send some one to Spain to lay his complaints before the president
of Indian affairs, with whom he stood in great favour. Velasquez also
laid a formal accusation against Cortes and all of us, in the royal
court of audience at Santo Domingo, and also before the Hieronymite
brethren, who were viceroys of that island. These brothers were then
three in number, father Luis de Figueroa, father Alonso de Santo
Domingo, and father Bernardino de Mancanedo: they lived together in the
cloister of Mejorada, eight miles from Medina del Campo. The answer they
gave Diego Velasquez was not very consoling; for, when they found, from
our papers, what great things we had done, they declared that no
reproach could be made either to Cortes or his troops: we had merely
addressed the emperor our master, and sent him a present of such
considerable value as had not been seen in Spain for a length of time,
(this they might say in all justice, for Peru was then still unknown;)
on the contrary, we had merited a most noble remuneration at his
majesty's hands.

Besides coming to this decision, the Hieronymite brothers commissioned
the licentiate Zuazo, who was either purposely sent to Cuba for this
purpose, or at l