Never was villainy so great that if united with high station or ability it could not find supporters; for most men are rascals at heart in one direction or another.
The pretty pair, Velazquez the governor, and Cortés the adventurer—so well pitted that the difference between them consists chiefly in setting off the position of one against the native strength of the other, the manners and pusillanimity of the one against the fate-defying chivalry of the other—had each his active workers not only in Spain, but in America, those of Velazquez being some of them in the very camp of Cortés.
Since the royal grant of superior powers to Velazquez, this faction has lifted its head. And now its brain works.
The messengers for Spain had scarcely left the port before these malcontents form a plot, this time not with the sole desire to return to a more comfortable and secure life, but with a view to advise Velazquez of the treasure ship so close at hand.
Amongst them are to be found the priest Juan Diaz; Juan Escudero, the alguacil of Baracoa, who beguiled and surrendered Cortés into the hands of the authorities; Diego Cermeño and Gonzalo de Umbría, pilots; Bernardino de Coria, and Alonso Peñate, beside several leading men who merely countenanced the plot.1
They have already secured a small vessel with the necessary supplies, and the night of embarkment is at hand, when Coria repents and betrays his companions.