s could be proved by Duero, who now stood before the
honorable commissioners, as at that time he held a command under
Narvaez, and had himself warned Cortes of the latter's treacherous
designs against his life.

Neither could Velasquez's agents confute any part of these statements;
our agents therefore continued: With regard to the expedition of Garay,
Cortes had not been the cause of its failure, but the inhabitants of
Panuco, who had risen up in arms against the troops, the whole of whom,
with Garay, would certainly have been cut off to a man, if the latter
had not, in the imminent danger in which he was placed, begged
assistance of Cortes; for which purpose Garay had repaired in person to
Mexico, where he met with the kindest reception from Cortes; but that a
few days after he caught a violent cold, of which he died, and not of
poison, as had been imputed to Cortes, who could have had no cause
whatever to adopt such a course, even if he had in any way feared Garay,
as the latter did not possess the requisite talents for command, and had
himself caused great discontent among his troops, who even rebelled
against him, on account of his having marched them immediately upon
landing to a pestilential part of the country, full of swamps and
uninhabitable, on account of the vermin with which it swarmed. When his
men therefore heard of the riches of Mexico and the liberality of
Cortes, they dispersed of their own accord, and traversed the country
like so many banditti, plundered and burned the townships, and forcibly
carried off the females, until the natives rose up against them in a
body. Cortes' only reason for despatching several of his officers to
Garay was that they might assist him with their advice and authority; to
peruse his papers, and see how far they interfered with the powers which
Cortes had obtained from his majesty. When Garay found that the whole of
his men had deserted, and that the greater number of his vessels were
lost, he repaired in person to Mexico, to beg assistance from Cortes. On
his road thither he everywhere met with the heartiest reception; in
Tezcuco a splendid banquet took place in his honour, and when he had
approached within a short distance of Mexico, Cortes himself came out to
meet him, and quartered him in one of his own palaces. They became so
friendly with each other, that the preliminaries of a marriage were
settled between a daughter of Cortes and the eldest son of Garay, and in
cons