348, does not hesitate to say very plainly that the expedition was sent out to capture Indians, ‘ir é enviar á saltear indios para traer á ella,’ for which purpose there were always men with money ready; and that on this occasion Córdoba, Morante, and Caicedo subscribed 1,500 or 2,000 castellanos each, to go and catch Indians, either at the Lucayas Islands or elsewhere. Torquemada, i. 349, writes more mildly, yet plainly enough; ‘para ir à buscar Indios, à las Islas Convecinas, y hacer Rescates, como hasta entonces lo acostumbraban.’ Cogolludo, Hist. Yucathan, 1-6, follows Bernal Diaz almost literally. Gomara, Hist. Ind., 60, is non-committal, stating first ‘para descubrir y rescatar,’ and afterward, ‘Otros dizen que para traer esclauos de las yslas Guanaxos a sus minas y granjerias.’ Oviedo and Herrera pass by the question. Landa, Rel. de Yucatan, 16, ‘a rescatar esclavos para las minas, que ya en Cuba se yva la gente apocando y que otros dizen que salio a descubrir tierra.’ Says the unknown author of De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 338, ‘In has igitur insulas ad grassandum et prædandum, ut ita dicam, ire hi de quibus suprà dictum est, constituerant; non in Iucatanam.’ It is clear to my mind that slaves were the first object, and that discovery was secondary, and an after-thought.