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the conquest of so vast and rich a country, with such numerous and strong cities. His own defeat had, indeed, been a trifling matter in comparison. Magnificent rewards must surely flow from the sovereign, and to this end he would devote his own efforts in the behalf of Cortés. With such words did he mask the burning hatred that awaited only opportunity.[1] The opportunity came when toward the close of 1523 he was permitted, partly through the influence of Garay's pleadings, to leave New Spain.[2] Thereupon he hastened to court to stir up afresh the enemies of Cortés.
- ↑ Tho gossips circulated a story that Cortés gave Narvaez 50,000 ducats wherewith to compensate Velazquez for his losses through the expedition to Mexico, but this deserves little credit, says Herrera, dec. iii. lib. i. cap. xv. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 160-1. Nor is it likely that Cortés would have giver the money to Narvaez, whc would have kept it for his own claims
- ↑ His obsequious flattery of Cortés had no doubt assisted at the liberation, as well as the pleadings of his rich wife Maria de Valenzuela, who appears to have known the conqueror. Narvaez was even given 2,000 pesos de oro, probably in payment of certain effects taken from him, and he left with humble protestations, Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 170. Among the scores to be remembered by him against Cortés was the execution of Diego Diaz, a shipmaster, who sought to procure his escape from Villa Rica early in 1521. The record of the trial is given in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xxvi. 287-97.
