Panfilo de Narvaez,[1] a householder of the island of Fernandina, as their captain; that they brought eighty horses, many pieces of artillery, and eight hundred soldiers, among which latter were eighty musketeers, and a hundred and twenty bowmen; that Narvaez came with a commission as Captain-General, and Lieutenant-Governor of all these parts, by appointment of Diego Velasquez, with faculties from Your Majesty for all this; that the messengers I had sent, and the man I had stationed on the coast were with Panfilo de Narvaez, who would not allow them to return, and that he had information himself from them about my founding that town twelve leagues from the said port, and of the people who were in it, as well as about the people I had sent to Quacucalco, thirty leagues from the port, in a province called Tuchitepeque, I learned also that Narvaez knew of everything I had done in the country in the service of Your Highness; about the cities and towns I had pacified and about the great city of Temixtitan; about the gold and jewels we had obtained in the country, and all else that had happened to me. Narvaez had sent these men to Vera Cruz, to try to win over the inhabitants to his design that they should rebel against me. They brought me more than a hundred letters which Narvaez and his companions sent to people in Vera Cruz, telling them to credit what the cleric and the others with him would say in his name, promising them in the name of Diego Velasquez, that, if they would do so, they should be rewarded, but that
- ↑ Panfilo de Narvaez, a native of Valladolid, first settled in Jamaica, afterwards taking part in the conquest of Cuba, as captain of thirty bowmen, when he won the friendship of Diego Velasquez, who made him one of his chief captains. Las Casas describes him as well behaved, and brave but imprudent, but Bernal Diaz's opinion of him was less pleasing as he calls him vain, presumptuous, foolish, and proud, but admits his bravery. He was forty years old when he came to Mexico to arrest Cortes and send him back to Cuba. He brought with him the curse of small-pox, which was thus introduced into Mexico by a negro of his crew.
