sion never left him. He was a power within himself, and he knew it. Thus it was in Mexico now; and for years afterward when Mexico was all America, he was Agamemnon, king of men, the greatest of Greece when Greece was all the world.
Under the present inspiration, he sent Rodrigo Álvarez Chico and a notary[1] to withdraw the proposal he had made Narvaez for an interview, and to demand of him the production of a royal commission, authorizing his presence there, which commission would be respected; otherwise he must cease meddling with the affairs of the country. The followers of Narvaez were to be formally forbidden to obey his orders; and they were to appear before Cortés within a specified time, and learn from him what the interests of the king required of them. Failing in this, he would have them seized and dealt with as rebels against his majesty.[2]
The cool impudence of this demand, coming from the captain of a little band of outlaws hemmed in between hostile forces, gave rise to no small amusement in the enemy's camp. Narvaez chose nevertheless to regard the matter seriously, receiving the message as an insolent defiance. He declared he
- ↑ Gomara sends them with Velazquez de Leon. Hist. Mex., 144. 'Chico, é Pedro Hernandez, escribano.' Demanda de Ceballos, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 440. Velazquez having gone on a mediatory mission, Chico must have been sent after his departure.
- ↑ 'La respuesta ... fué prender al escribano y á la persona que con mi poder ... los cuales estuvieron detenidos hasta que llegó otro mensajero que yo envié.' 'Escribí una carta al dicho Narvaez y otra á los terceros, diciéndoles cómo yo habia sabido su mala intencion.' Cortés, Cartas, 122-3. The reference to a messenger indicates Cortés' meaning to be that Chico preceded Velazquez de Leon. Gomara assumes that Cortés' pretext for withdrawing the proposal for an interview was that Narvaez had declined to entertain the points to be there discussed. See note 19. Chico had warned him of the intended treachery. Hist. Mex., 144. 'Y que supiesse que no auian de cantar dos gallos en vn muladar, y que aparejasse las manos.' Herrera, dec. ii. lib. ix. cap. xxi. Bernal Diaz sends the message with Olmedo, 'since no royal notary dare carry it,' and gives Narvaez three days in which to send in any commission he may possess signed by the king. Without such commission he must leave the country, or Cortés will seize him and inflict punishment for the outrage on Aillon and on the Indians. This ultimatum was signed also by the captains and some soldiers, including Bernal Diaz. Hist. Verdad., 92-3. An answer was demanded through the same messengers. Tapia, Rel., in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 588.
