With these letters went one from the army, which, recounting but briefly the leading incidents of the campaigns, had for its main object to decry Narvaez and Velazquez as the sole cause of all the disasters that had occurred in the country, and to praise Cortés as a noble, loyal, and able man, by whom alone the
conquest could be achieved.28 These and other letters were intrusted to Alonso de Mendoza, a townsman of Cortés, together with thirty thousand pesos, in fifths and presents, and a number of commissions from different members of the expedition. A well appointed vessel was assigned for the voyage, and three other vessels were despatched for Española, there to enlist recruits and to buy horses, arms and ammunition, cattle, clothing, and other requirements, and four strong vessels to maintain traffic with the Antilles. Letters were sent to Licenciado Rodrigo de Figueroa and other royal officers on the Island, inclosing duplicates of those forwarded to Spain; and a number of specimens of the jewels, manufactures, and natural resources of the country, were transmitted as presents and as samples to allure recruits. The letters and the ample funds for the enlistment and purchases were intrusted to Contador Ávila and another officer,29 with instructions to use every effort to confirm the audiencia officials in their good opinion of Cortés, so that they might plead his cause in Spain. The ill-treatment of Aillon by Velazquez and Narvaez had already impelled them to do this, as we have seen. Their advice was to be asked regarding the enslavement
of rebels and other measures, and their authority and aid sought for obtaining men and stores.30 Another vessel was sent under Solis31 to Jamaica to buy horses and war material. Bernal Diaz does not fail to point out the evidence in the large remittance for Spain and the Antilles of treasures secretly taken from Mexico by Cortés and his clique, and accuses him of having appropriated also the share for Villa Rica, claimed to have been captured by the Indians during its transmission from Tlascala.32