receiving from us the oath in the name of Your Royal Highnesses, with the solemnity customary in such cases; after which we assembled the next day in our council and assembly chamber, and, being thus assembled, we sent to summon the Captain Fernando Cortes, and we asked him in the name of Your Royal Highnesses to show us the powers and instructions, which the said Diego Velasquez had given him for coming to these parts. He immediately sent for these, and showed them to us, and, having been seen and read by us, and well examined according to the best of our understanding, it seemed to us that, by those powers and instructions, the said Captain Fernando Cortes, had no longer any authority, and that, they having expired, he could no longer exercise the office of justice, or of captain. It seemed to us, Very Excellent Princes, that, for the sake of peace and concord amongst us, and in order to govern us well, it was necessary to install a person for
when they came to understand the circumstances. The Velasquez party seems to have offered no open resistance.
The elaborate name of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz was given to the new settlement, the "rica" being suggested by the rich character of the soil, and the "Vera Cruz" by the date of their landing, which was a Good Friday, the day when the Cross is especially venerated.
The transformation scene was very complete. Cortes, from being the semi-rebellious captain of a trading fleet became the recognised representative of the King of Spain in Mexico; the volunteer soldiers of the expedition became a militia; municipal officers, and royal officials sprang into existence, who acknowledged no superior but the King, while Diego Velasquez was eliminated from the scheme of things entirely.
The partisans of Velasquez, though in a minority, still argued that Cortes's election was irregular, because they had not taken part in it, nor had it been confirmed, either by the Jeronymite Fathers, or the governor of Cuba. This incipient sedition was characteristically met, by Cortes offering as many as were dissatisfied permission to re-embark, and return to Cuba, and, at the same time, to demonstrate the reality of the new state of things, he ordered the Alguacil Mayor to arrest Juan Velasquez, Diego de Ordaz, Pedro Escudero, and others of the more active agitators, and to imprison them on the captain's ship. This drastic move had the desired effect upon the waverers.
