that, if I left the ships there, they would revolt with them, and, all those of like mind deserting, I would be left almost alone, by which the great service which I had rendered to God and Your Highness in this country would be undone, I determined, on the pretext that they were unseaworthy, to have the said ships beached.[1] Thus, everybody lost hope of ever leaving the country, and I set out on my march, securely, without fear that, when I turned my back, the people whom I had left in the town would fail me.
Eight or ten days after having beached the ships, and when I had gone to the city of Cempoal, which is about four leagues distant, whence to continue my march, they brought me news in that town, that four ships were running along the coast, and that the captain, whom I had left there, had gone out to them in a boat. I had
- ↑ The destruction of the ships is one of the most dramatic episodes in the eventful history of the conquest, and Cortes, in reporting it to the Emperor, assumes exclusively the credit of the heroic decision and its execution, but throughout his narrative he is chary of ever mentioning anybody but himself. Gomara naturally gives the same account and Prescott accepts his version, as do other reputable historians. Bernal Diaz, who figures always as the great objector and corrector, contradicts this account very positively, and says that the destruction of the ships was decided upon after a general discussion, and that Cortes was unwilling to accept any responsibility either for their demolition or for their cost if there should later arise a necessity to pay for them to their rightful owners. He refutes with emphatic scorn Gomara's assertion that Cortes feared to tell the soldiers of his intention to push into the interior in search of the great Montezuma, exclaiming: "What sort of Spaniards are we, not to want to push ahead, but to stop where we had no hardships or fighting!" The Relacion of Andres de Tapia (who was also an eye-witness) agrees with Bernal Diaz. Puertocarrero replied in La Coruña in the same sense as his companion Montejo (April 29, 1520), stating that the proposal to destroy all but three of the ships came from the captains of them, who declared them to be unseaworthy, and even the three to be of doubtful value. Puertocarrero and Montejo sailed, as has been said, on July 16th, with the treasure and the letters which were dated July 10th, so that the discovery of the conspiracy, and the punishment of its authors, and the destruction of the ships, all took place in those six days.
