ABSTRACT
You have already heard me tell in the preceding chapter how Cortés had undertaken to go to a town named Cingapacinga, and take with him four hundred soldiers and fourteen horsemen and musketeers and crossbowmen, and we took good care to make certain soldiers of the party of Diego Velásquez go with us. When the officers went to warn them to get their arms ready, and those who had them to bring their horses, they answered haughtily that they did not want to go on any expedition but back to their farms and estates in Cuba; that they had already lost enough through Cortés having enticed them from their homes, and that he had promised them on the sand dunes that whosoever might wish to leave, that he would give them permission to do so and a ship and stores for the voyage; and for that reason there were now seven soldiers all ready to return to Cuba. When Cortés heard this he sent to summon these men before him, and when he asked them why they were doing such a mean thing they replied somewhat indignantly and said that they wondered at his honour, with so few soldiers under his command, wishing to settle in a place where there were reported to be such thousands of Indians and such great towns; that as for themselves, they were invalids and could hardly crawl from one place to another and that they wished to return to their homes and estates in Cuba, and they asked him to grant them leave to depart as he had promised that he would do. Cortés answered them gently that it was true that he had promised it, but that they were not doing their duty in deserting from their captain’s flag. And then he ordered them to embark at once without any delay and assigned a ship to them and ordered them to be furnished with cassava bread and a jar of oil and such other supplies as we possessed.
