ices
we had rendered to God and the emperor, to promote our cause in every
possible manner. After he had carefully perused Cortes' letters, and
received the bars of gold, he no longer made a secret of his sentiments,
but spoke without any reserve of the scandalous piece of injustice which
had been perpetrated in fitting out this armament against such
well-deserving men as we had proved ourselves, and was so eloquent in
the praise of Cortes and his companions in arms, that the feeling in our
favour became almost universal in Narvaez's head-quarters. The meanness
of the latter's disposition served to increase this feeling, who
retained all the presents sent by Motecusuma entirely to himself,
without offering any part of them either to his officers or men. Indeed,
he even said haughtily to his steward, "Mind that not the smallest
matter is taken away from these things; every article has been carefully
noted down." When this conduct was compared with that pursued by Cortes
towards his soldiers, his men almost broke out into open insurrection.

Narvaez looked upon the auditor as the cause of all this bad feeling,
and brought it so sensibly home to him that no one durst give him or his
adherents the smallest morsel of the provisions which were sent by
Motecusuma. This circumstance of itself caused a good deal of
quarrelling among the troops; but when Narvaez's principal adherents,
Salvatierra, whom I have above mentioned, and a certain Juan Bono, from
Biscay, with a certain Gamarra, continually added fuel to the flame, he,
relying on the mighty support of Fonseca, lost sight of every
consideration, imprisoned the auditor, with his secretary and all his
attendants, threw them on board a vessel, and so sent them off either to
Spain or Cuba.

His behaviour towards Gonzalo de Oblanco, a cavalier and a scholar, was
even more severe,--when the latter boldly told him to his face that
Cortes had proved himself a faithful servant to the emperor, that we all
had merited a reward from his majesty, and that it was scandalous to
brand us with the name of traitors, and great presumption to imprison
one of his majesty's auditors, Narvaez instantly threw him into chains,
and Oblanco, who was a high-spirited soul, was so hurt at this
ill-treatment, that he died within the space of four days. Two other
soldiers were thrown into prison merely because they had spoken well of
Cortes; one of whom was Sancho de Barahona, who afterwards settled dow