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 destroyed, and, lastly, the
travelling expenses of our agents whom we sent to Spain. Next were
deducted the several shares due to the garrison at Vera Cruz, which
consisted of seventy men; then the value of the two horses which had
been killed, one in the engagement with the Tlascallans, the other at
Almeria.

Not until all this had been deducted were the rest of our men allowed to
take their shares. Double shares were also set apart for the two
priests, the officers, and the cavalry, likewise for the musketeers and
crossbow-men. After these and other nibblings, there remained, for the
greater part of our men, who could only claim one share, such a mere
trifle, that many of them would not even accept of it, which Cortes then
took himself. At that time, indeed, we thought it best to say nothing
about this unjust division; for what would it have availed us had we
demanded justice? Besides which, Cortes had secretly bribed some with
presents and large promises, and many of the most noisy he presented
with a hundred pesos to stop their mouths.

The portion belonging to the garrison at Vera Cruz was forwarded to
Tlascalla for safe keeping. Most of our officers employed Motecusuma's
goldsmiths of Escapuzalco to make them heavy chains of the gold; and
Cortes, among other things, ordered a grand dinner service. Several of
our soldiers, who had learnt how to fill their pockets, had other things
made; and it was not long before a number of the stamped bars and
trinkets came into circulation; for gambling was now commenced to a
great extent, after a certain Pedro Valenciano had managed to
manufacture playing cards from parchment, which were as well painted and
as beautiful to the eye as those manufactured in Spain.

I will, however, show what impression this unfair division of the gold
made upon our men. Among our troops there was a man named Cardenas, a
sailor by profession, who had left behind him in Spain a wife and
children in great want, and had the ill-luck, with many of us, to
continue in poverty.

When this man beheld the great heap of gold piled up in bars, plates,
besides the gold dust, and found his share of the spoil was a mere
hundred pesos, he became excessively low-spirited. One of his friends,
who had observed this, asked him the cause of his grief and heavy sighs?
He answered, "Why, how the devil can I do otherwise, when I see the gold
which we have so hardly earned find its way into Cortes' pockets, with
his fifths, monies laid out for horses, vessels, and other such like
vile trickeries, while my wife and children are perishing at home for
want of food? I could even have sent them a little help when our agents
went to Spain, for there was sufficient gold at that time to have
divided it among us." "What gold are you speaking of?" inquired his
friend. "Why," answered Cardenas, "of that which our agents took with
them to Spain. If Cortes had granted me my share of that, my wife and
children would not have wanted: but he employed every species of
artifice to persuade us to send the whole treasure as a present to the
emperor, with the exception, however, of above 6000 pesos to Martin
Cortes, his father: I will not even mention the gold which he has
secretly stowed away. We others who have fought about courageously night
and day at Tabasco, Tlascalla, Zinpantzinco, and Cholulla; we who at
present live in continual fear, with almost certain death before our
eyes as soon as the inhabitants of this great city get it into their
heads to rise up against us,--we all remain, as before,
poverty-stricken, and all our remonstrances are in vain! Cortes, on the
contrary, acts as if he were the emperor himself, and runs away with a
fifth of our hard earnings!"

In this strain the poor fellow continued his complaints, and was of
opinion that we should not have allowed Cortes to deduct a fifth for
himself; and that we required no other sovereign than our own emperor.

"And are you really," returned the other, "going to embitter your
happiness with such thoughts? All this will avail you nothing. You know
we fare equally bad with respect to provisions, for Cortes and his
officers nearly eat up all themselves; but it is of no use for us to
complain, therefore drive away, all such melancholy thoughts from your
mind, and pray to the Almighty that we may not meet with our total
destruction in this city."

Cortes was duly apprized of all this and similar complaints; and as the
discontent among the men respecting the unfair division of the gold
became pretty general, he ordered the whole of us into his presence, and
addressed us in a speech abounding with the sweetest sentences
imaginable. He was indebted, he said, for all he had to us; that he had
not required the fifth part, but the share which was promised him when
we elected him captain-general, and he was quite ready to bestow
something on those who stood in need. The gold we had collected up to
this moment, he continued, was a trifle to that which was to come. We
ought to remember what great cities were dispersed through the country,
and the rich mines which were in our possession; these certainly would
enrich every man in his army. In this way he continued for some time,
and spoke feelingly to the heart! but, finding all this had no effect,
he employed other means. Many he secretly silenced with gold, and others
by great promises, and the provisions sent us by Motecusuma's orders
were from this moment justly divided, so that every man among us had an
equal share of food with himself. He likewise took Cardenas aside, and
quieted him with a present of 300 pesos, and the promise that he would
allow him to return home to his family with the first vessel that left
for Spain. This Cardenas I shall have occasion to mention on some future
occasion, for he did Cortes considerable injury in Spain during the
subsequent complaints which were laid before the emperor against him.

CHAPTER CVI.

 _Of the high words which arose between Velasquez de Leon and our
 treasurer Gonzalo Mexia on account of the gold which was missing
 from the heap, and how Cortes put an end to that dispute._

Since gold, generally speaking, is the great desire of man, and that the
more he possesses of it the more avaricious he grows, it also happened
here that many pieces of gold were missing from the heaps, which I have
mentioned above; and as one of our officers named Leon had ordered
Motecusuma's goldsmiths to make him heavy gold chains and other
ornaments, the royal treasurer Gonzalo Mexia suspected something wrong,
and secretly observed to him that the emperor's fifths had not been
deducted from several of the bars he had sent to be smelted. Leon, who
stood in high favour with Cortes, answered, that it was not his
intention to return anything. The gold he possessed he had not taken
himself, but had received all from Cortes before it had ever been
smelted.

The royal treasurer, however, was not to be silenced by this, but
affirmed, that, besides the gold Cortes had 

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