vet robe he had procured at Santiago. About this time there also
arrived in the port of Trinidad a vessel belonging to a certain Juan
Sedeno, of the Havannah, laden with cassave-bread and salted meat, which
was destined for the mines of Santiago. This Sedeno, who had called upon
our commander to pay his respects, was soon persuaded, by the eloquence
and address of Cortes, to sell him his ship with the lading and all, and
himself to join the expedition. We had now eleven ships in all, and
everything, thanks to Providence, was going on well, when letters
arrived from Diego Velasquez with peremptory orders that Cortes was to
be deprived of the command. But I will detail this matter in the
following chapter.

CHAPTER XXII.

_How the governor Diego Velasquez sends two of his officials in all
haste to Trinidad, with full power and authority to deprive Cortes
of his appointment of captain, and bring the squadron away, &c._

I must now carry my narrative back a few days, in order to relate what
happened at Santiago de Cuba after our departure. We had scarcely set
sail when Diego Velasquez's friends left him not a moment's peace,
harassing him until they had totally revolutionised his sentiments with
regard to Cortes. They now plainly told him that he might consider
Cortes as lost to his interests from his having so secretly sneaked away
from the harbour. Neither had he made any secret of his determination to
have the chief command of the armament, whether Diego might wish it or
not; for which reason he had embarked his men at night-time, that if any
attempt were made to deprive him of the squadron, he would resist it by
main force. He, the governor, had been deceived by his private secretary
Duero, and De Lares the royal treasurer, who had both made some previous
agreement with Cortes to procure him the command. But in particular the
relatives of Velasquez were constantly urging him to cancel the recent
appointment of Cortes, in which they were backed by a certain old man,
named Juan Millan, commonly termed the astrologer, who was considered by
many not to be exactly in his proper senses. This old man repeatedly
told the governor that Cortes would now revenge himself for his having,
some time ago, thrown him into prison: "Sly and artful as he is, he will
be the means of ruining you, if you are not upon your guard."

These hints were not thrown away upon Velasquez; they brought about a
revolution in his mi