This officer may have been about forty-two years of age when he arrived in New Spain with an army of 1300 men, which was totally defeated by our small body of 266 men. He was tall of stature, strong of limb; his beard was red; his face large but cheerful. His voice was amazingly powerful, and sounded as if it proceeded from a vault. He was a capital horseman, and was said to be an officer of great courage. He was a native of Tudela or Valladolid, on the Duero, and was married to a lady of rank named Maria de Valenzuela. He had settled in Cuba; was considered very rich, but miserly. He was an excellent spokesman, and obtained for himself the government of Florida, where, however, he lost both his life and his property.
Several curious cavaliers who had read the minute description I have here given respecting the persons and the characters of the officers and soldiers of the courageous and fortunate Don Hernando Cortes, marquis del Valle Oaxaca, inquired of me in astonishment how I could remember all these little particulars after so many years had rolled by. I told them it was no great wonder at all when they reflected that we were only 550 men altogether, who daily came in contact with each other in the numerous campaigns, battles, skirmishes, and at the outposts. We were constantly in conversation with each other, and in this way it soon became known what happened to every individual, in what battles he fell, or whether he was captured by the Indians and sacrificed to their idols: besides which, a list of the killed was taken after every engagement. Nor can I see anything so very wonderful in all this; for we read in ancient times of generals who knew every soldier personally, his name and birthplace, though these armies were generally composed of 30,000 men. Historians have mentioned as instances of this, Mithridates, king of Pontus, of one of the kings of Epirus, and of Alexander of Macedonia. The renowned Carthaginian general Hannibal is also said to have known every one of his soldiers personally. In our times we know this of Gonzalo Hernandez de Cordoba, called the "great captain." Besides these there are many other generals who possessed the same powerful memory.