married Catalina, and jointly with his brother-in-law received an encomienda of Manicarao Indians. Like a brave cavalier he put the best face possible on the inevitable, and vowed he was as pleased with his bride as if she had been a duchess.[1] Velazquez stood godfather to a child born to them, and thenceforth addressed Cortés by the intimate term compadre,[2] investing him afterward with the staff of alcalde at Santiago de Cuba.[3] For a time, however, he remained at Baracoa, where the preceding events occurred, and beside mining he was one of the first upon the island to engage in stock raising. Thus by diligence and judicious investments he was enabled to rise from poverty, as well as from profligacy, and to stand ready to embrace the golden opportunity fortune was now about to offer him.
The soft white snow gently dropped upon the mountain top is forged by alternate thawings and freezings into hard, rasping glaciers.
- ↑ She was received by Cortés in Mexico, after the conquest, with great distinction; but died in about three months after her arrival.
- ↑ Las Casas, who, as usual, will have a fling at Cortés, writes: 'Tuvo Cortés un hijo ó hija, no sé si en su mujer, y suplicó á Diego Velazquez que tuviese por bien de se lo sacar de la pila en el baptismo y ser su compadre, lo que Diego Velazquez aceptó, por honralle.' Hist. Ind., iv. 13. Anong Cortés' children a natural daughter by a Cuban Indian is mentioned, Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 238, but it is not likely that Cortés would ask the governor to stand godfather to a natural child. The same writer makes Velazquez the groomsman or sponsor at the marriage. 'Fue su padrino, quando Cortés se velò con Doña Catalina;' ib., 13; Vetancovrt, Teatro Mex., pt. iii. 109. Although compadre is not unfrequently used as a mere term of friendship, it is not likely to have been applied by a marriage padrino; hence the title of co-father indicates that it originated at the font.
- ↑ An office granted only to men of note and to leading conquistadores. Solis, Hist. Mex., i. 46. It conveyed the title of 'muy virtuoso señor,' the governor being called 'muy magnífico señor,' Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xii. 225, and permitted the holder to walk side by side with the governor. Herrera, dec. ii. lib. iii. cap. xii. 'Auia sido dos vezes Alcalde en la Villa de Sāti͏̄ago de Boroco, adõde era vezino: porque en aquestas tierras se tiene por mucha honra.' Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdal., 13. He does not refer to him as alcalde at Santiago de Cuba, where the fleet is fitting out, as he clearly states. Gomara, Hist. Mex., 4, mentions merely that he was here before the quarrel with Velazquez. Sone writers assume that Santiagode Cuba is the same as Santiago de Baracoa, but Herrera, loc. cit., and others, observe the distinction.
in former campaigns. After their victorious return Cortés enjoys greater honors than ever. Peralta, who also gives the story at length, states that Cortés surprised Velazquez asleep. At the request of the governor he gave himself up to the jailer in order to be formally released. Nat. Hist., 58-62. Still Peralta is a little confused.
