and each shirt at two dollars in gold, and the string of green beads at two dollars, so that he thus covered his outlay in the armada, and even made money. We make special mention of this to Your Majesties that it may be known that the armadas, which until now have been fitted out by Diego Velasquez, have been intended as much for trading merchandise as for privateers, and this with our persons and with our property; and although we have suffered infinite hardships we have served, and we shall serve, Your Royal Highnesses as long as life lasts.
Diego Velasquez being vexed by the small amount of gold that had been brought him, and wishing to obtain more, determined, without making it known to the Governors, the Jeronymite Fathers, to equip a swift armada, and to send it in search of his relative, the said Captain Juan de Grijalba. To do this at less cost to himself, he spoke to Fernando Cortes, a resident and alcalde for Your Majesties in the city of Santiago, proposing to him that they should fit out between them eight or ten ships, because at that time Fernando Cortes had more resources than any other person in the said Island, and because it was believed that more people would enlist with him than with any other.
The said Fernando Cortes, considering what Diego Velasquez had proposed, and moved by zeal to serve
minas as 450 maravedis, which he computes as equal to $9.75; he refers to Clemencin, secretary of the Spanish Royal Academy as his authority. Prescott (Conquest of Mex.) computes the ducat at $8.75, and gives the peso de oro, and the castellano as identical, and worth $11.67. Mr. George Folsom, in his English translation of three Letters of Cortes, gives the value of the castellano as only $2.75. According to these calculations, the peso de minas, and the peso de oro, were different coins. The value of these monies is difficult to estimate. Their purchasing power was far greater than their exact equivalent would be today, and the value of articles of European manufacture, of horses, iron, and other imported necessities was variable, according to their scarcity, and to the needs of the buyer. Nails, horseshoes, and like objects, sometimes cost their weight in gold, or double in silver.
