ABSTRACT

To make my story clear, I must go back and relate that when Diego Velásquez knew for certain that his lieutenant and brother-in-law Francisco Verdugo who was stationed at the town of Trinidad not only refused to compel Cortés to leave the fleet, but, together with Diego de Ordás, had helped him to get away, they say that he was so angry that he roared with rage and told his secretary Andrés de Duero and the Treasurer Amador de Lares that they had deceived him by the agreement they had made, and that Cortés was mutinous. He made up his mind to send a servant with letters and orders to Pedro Barba, his lieutenant at Havana, and wrote very graciously to all his friends who were settlers in that town, and to Diego de Ordás and to Juan Velásquez de Leon who were his friends and kinsmen praying them neither for good nor ill to let the fleet get away, and to seize Cortés at once and send him under a strong guard to Santiago de Cuba.