A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 764 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04.

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 764 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04.

Narvaez arrived safe with his whole fleet in the harbour of St Juan de Ulua, except that he lost one small vessel during the voyage.  Soon after his arrival, the soldiers who had been sent by Cortes to that part of the country in search of mines, went on board, and it is said gave thanks to God for being delivered from the command of Cortes and the dangers of the city of Mexico.  Finding them in this mood, Narvaez ordered them to be plentifully supplied with wine, to make them more communicative.  Cervantes the jester, who was one of these soldiers, under pretence of facetiousness, exposed to him all the discontents of our soldiers respecting the distribution of the treasure we had obtained, and informed him also of the bad state of the garrison in Villa Rica under Sandoval.  The arrival of this new armament was soon communicated to Montezuma, who concealed the intelligence for some time from Cortes, and opened a private correspondence with Narvaez, to whom he sent many rich presents.  Narvaez, in his correspondence with Montezuma, said every thing that was bad against Cortes and his troops, representing the whole of us as outcasts and robbers, and that the emperor, hearing of our evil conduct, and that we detained the great Montezuma in custody, had sent the present expedition for the express purpose of liberating him and putting us all to death.  This intelligence gave great satisfaction to Montezuma, who thought we must necessarily be all destroyed, as he had got an exact account of their force represented to him in paintings:  He accordingly transmitted very magnificent presents to Narvaez, and could ill conceal the satisfaction he had derived from the intelligence.  Montezuma concealed the news of this armament from Cortes, who observed and was astonished at the alteration which it had produced on the kings manners and behaviour.  At length however, from the circumstance of Cortes making him two visits in one day, Montezuma became apprehensive of the general procuring intelligence from any other quarter, and told him the news, pretending only to have just heard of it himself.  Cortes expressed the utmost joy at the intelligence, and Montezuma shewed him the representations which had been transmitted to him, by which he learnt every thing he wished to know on the subject.  He immediately left the king and communicated the intelligence to the troops, who got immediately under arms, and fired several vollies in token of our joy.  We soon noticed, however, that Cortes was exceedingly pensive when alone, of which we could not divine the cause; till he soon afterwards convinced us, and explained that the armament was evidently designed against us; and he now, partly by promises and partly by gifts, as from his bounty of what was ours by good right, made interest with us to stand firmly by him in the approaching contest with Narvaez.

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A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.