on the River Panuco, telling me that the Governor Francisco de Garay had arrived at Panuco with one hundred and twenty horse, four hundred foot soldiers, and numerous artillery, proclaiming himself, through an interpreter, whom he had brought with him, governor of the country; he told the Indians he would revenge the ills they had suffered at my hands in the recent war, and that they should join with him in driving out those Spaniards whom I had placed there, and that he would help them; besides many other scandalous things which considerably agitated the natives. To confirm my suspicion of his understanding with the Admiral and Diego Velasquez, a few days later, there arrived at the river a caravel from the island of Cuba having on board certain friends and servants of Diego Velasquez, and a servant of the Bishop of Burgos, who said that he came as factor for Yucatan; and the rest of the company was composed of creatures and relatives of Diego Velasquez and of the Admiral. When I heard this news, although I had a lame arm from a fall from my horse, and was in bed, I decided to go to meet him and arrange the difficulty, and I immediately sent Pedro de Alvarado ahead of me with all the people he had ready for his march, while I prepared to start in two days. My bed and baggage were already on the road and had gone ten leagues from Mexico to a place where I was to join them, when, towards midnight, there arrived a courier from Vera Cruz who brought me letters,[1] which had arrived from Spain in a ship, and
- ↑ 1 The fortunate arrival of the Emperor's letter forbidding Garay to interfere in any way with Cortes's administration, or to settle any lands already occupied by him, nipped this very serious difficulty in the bud. Alvarado's prompt success with Ovalle, who yielded with scarcely a show of resistance, suggests that a little golden diplomacy may have been used with him and his men, as had been successfully employed with Narvaez's followers under similar circumstances. The ship's captains were equally amenable, and Grijalba could not make good his intention to fight. The exhibition of the royal cedula rendered Garay powerless, his prestige amongst his followers was hope-
