‘Las vanderas Reales, y otras vanderas del nombre que se dezia ser el
vergantin.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 138. Ixtlilxochitl assumes that the
flag-ship was named Medellin, Hist. Chich., 313-14, but this appears to be based
on a misinterpretation of Herrera, who places Villafuerte ‘of Medellin’ at the
head of the list of captains. Vetancurt believes that the vessels were named
after the apostles, to whom Cortés was so devoted. Teatro Mex., pt. iii. 156.
If so, the flag-ship may have been called San Pedro, after his patron. When
all were floated a storm came which threatened to break them one against the
other. Torquemada, i. 532.
Their names appear to have been Juan Rodriguez de Villafuerte of
Medellin, Juan Jaramillo of Salvatierra, Francisco Rodriguez Magariño of
Merida, Cristóbal Flores of Valencia, Juan García Holguin of Cáceres, Caravajal
of Zamora, Pedro Barba of Seville, Gerónimo Ruiz de la Mota of Búrgos,
Pedro de Briones of Salamanca, Rodrigo Morejon de Lovera of Medina del
Campo, Antonio de Sotelo of Zamora, Juan de Portillo of Portillo, and Miguel
Diaz de Auz. Martin Lopez, the ship-builder, also joined, in the character of
chief pilot. Herrera, dec. iii. lib. i. cap. xii. xxi., has Francisco de Verdugo,
of Arévalo, instead of Diaz de Auz, but Bernal Diaz names him as one of the
company captains under Olid, and he ought to know better in this respect.
He also names a second Caravajal, Zamora, a ship-master, afterward settled
in Oajaca, Colmenero, Gines Nortes, and Lerma. Hist. Verdad., 138.