in official pursuits, varied by military exploits and love intrigues which kept his sword from rusting and gave him wounds which he carried through life. An abscess under the right knee, a most lucky affliction, alone prevented his joining the ill-fated expedition of Nicuesa to Veragua.[1]
On assuming the direction of New World affairs as governor, in place of Ovando, Diego Colon in 1511 fitted out an expedition against Cuba, and gave the command to Velazquez, who appointed Cortés his adviser and executive officer,[2] a position which the latter gladly accepted, deprived as he was of his patron Ovando, and heartily tired of the monotony of Española. Still hidden beneath a careless exterior were the deeper qualities of his nature, and there were yet six other years, and more of ordinary business and pleasure, before the appearance of earnest thought or great self-reliance.[3] Meanwhile Spanish women were not numerous in the Indies, and rivalry for their favors was great. Cortés had escaped with light
- ↑ The author of De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii directs this expedition tr Cuba, after delaying it three months in the hope of securing the services of Cortés, in both of which statements he is in error. Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 318-19.
- ↑ 'Socium et ministrum consiliorum omnium adsumit.' De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 320. So highly did Velazquez esteem the qualities of his friend, 'diu multùmque Cortesium rogat, ut secum eat: maria ac montes pollicetur, si operam ad id bellum polliceatur.' Id., 319. Las Casas, who knew Cortés at a later time, makes him one of the two secretaries of Velazquez, the other being Andrés de Duero; and this would coincide with the above. Las Casas is too inconsistent to be very reliable. On the same page he refers to Cortés as a prudent, reticent man, and also as a prater not to be trusted with secrets; ful to Velazquez only for his knowledge of Latin. Hist. Ind., iv. 10-11. Herrera, dec. i., lib. ix., cap. viii., follows Las Casas. Gomara, Hist. Mex., 6, calls him 'oficial del tesorero Miguel de Passamõte, para tener cuēta cõ los quintos y hazienda del rey, y aun el mesmo Diego Velazquez se lo rogo, por ser habil y diligente.' Gomara may have had his reasons for not connecting him too closely with his later enemy, but he admits on this and on the following page that Velazquez intrusted him with business affairs of his own, which he was afterward charged with having divulged. Among these duties was superintending the construction of a mint and hospital. The position of clerk to a treasurer would of course be inferior to that of secretary to the chief of the expedition; yet if the treasurer was as illiterate as Contador Láres, his clerk would rank rather as deputy.
- ↑ 'Era muy resabido y recatado,' says Las Casas, 'puesto que no mostraba saber tanto, ni ser de tanta habilidad como despues lo mostró en cosas árduas.'
