( 494 ) 



and lofty in his fpeech, as if the found came out of a vault; a good 

 horfeman, and faid to be valiant. He was a native of Valladolid, of 

 Tudela de Duero, and married to a lady named Maria de Valenzuela. 

 He had a conliderable property in the Ifland of Cuba, where he was a 

 captain. One of his eyes was beaten out in the attack which we made 

 upon him. This gentleman was faid to be very clofe in his difpofition. 

 He went to Caftille to lay his complaints againft us before his Majefty, 

 and obtained a royal grant of a government in Florida, where he was, 

 loft and all his property. Thofe who read the particulars of fo many 

 gallant officers and foldiers, fuch as I have now defcribed them, fre- 

 quently alk me how it happened that I fliould remember them per-, 

 fedlly, after the lapfe of fo many years; To which I reply, that it is. 

 natural enough that I ftiould recollecSt the names of five hundred and' 

 fifty companions who were always together, in expeditions, in watches, 

 ^in bafj:les, and in fkirmiflies, and converfing with each other how fuch, 

 a one had been killed at fuch a place, and how others were carried off 

 to be facrificed. For this was the manner in which we communicated 

 with each other, efpecially after we had come out of a bloody and 

 doubtful battle. And there have been generals who knew the foldier% 

 of their armies perfonally, even when there were as many as thirty 

 thoufand men; fo fays hiftory of Mithridates king of Pontus, and 

 another king of the Epirots, and of Alexander, and Hannibal of Car- 

 thage, and in our times of the valiant Gonzalo de Cordova callqd thfe? 

 great captain, and many others. I fay farther, that I have their figures, 

 fo perfe(5lly pourtrayed in my imagination, that I could draw them as; 

 it w^re to the life, each of them in the manner he entered into battle, 

 like the great Apelles, and thefe famous modern painters Michael An- 

 gelo, or the far celebrated Burgales, who is faid to be another Apelles. 

 Glory be to God, and the Holy Virgin, who faved me from being 

 facrificed to idols, to make thofe things known ! 



Having enumerated the foldiers who pafted with Cortes, and rela- 

 ted in what manner they died, I have now to obferve, that we were for 



the 



