Cristóbal de Olid, a year his junior, was a well formed, strong-limbed man, with wide shoulders and a somewhat fair complexion. Despite the peculiarity of a groove in the lower lip, which gave it the appearance of being split, the face was most attractive, and the powerful voice helped to bear him out as a good talker.
While lacking in sincerity and depth of thought, and being little fit for the council, he possessed qualities which, in connection with great bravery and determination, made him an admirable executive officer; but an ambition to command began to assert itself, and directed by evil influence it brought about his fall a few years later.
Bernal Diaz calls him a very Hector in combat, and possessing, among other good qualities, that of being liberal; on the whole an excellent man, though unfit to be a leader.6
The youngest of the captains, the most worshipful and the most lovable, was Gonzalo de Sandoval, an hidalgo of only twenty-two years, from Cortés’ own town, the son of a fortress commandant, but with merely a rudimentary education.
Brave, intrepid, and with a good head, he was equally determined in speech and in deportment, yet with a faultless obedience and loyalty that won the confidence and esteem of his chief.
With a strict eye to discipline, he possessed also a kind, humane disposition, which gained the love and respect of his men, whose comfort he studied far more than his own.
Plain in dress, and modest in manner and aspiration, he was free from the greed which tainted so many around him.
A soldier in all qualities of the heart and mind, he was also physically fitted for one.