But, as the
event proved, those who could part from him at this crisis had
little sympathy with his fortunes; and we find Duero not long
afterwards in Spain, supporting the claims of Velasquez before the
emperor, in opposition to those of his former friend and commander.
The loss of these few men was amply compensated by the arrival
of others, whom fortune most unexpectedly threw in his way. The
first of these came in a small vessel sent from Cuba by the
governor, Velasquez, with stores for the colony at Vera Cruz. He was
not aware of the late transactions in the country, and of the
discomfiture of his officer. In the vessel came despatches, it is
said, from Fonseca, Bishop of Burgos, instructing Narvaez to send
Cortes, if he had not already done so, for trial to Spain. The alcalde
of Vera Cruz, agreeably to the general's instructions, allowed the
captain of the bark to land, who had no doubt that the country was
in the hands of Narvaez. He was undeceived by being seized, together
with his men, so soon as they had set foot on shore. The vessel was
then secured; and the commander and his crew, finding out their error,
were persuaded without much difficulty to join their countrymen in
Tlascala.
A second vessel, sent soon after by Velasquez, shared the same
fate, and those on board consented also to take their chance in the
expedition under Cortes.
About the same time, Garay, the governor of Jamaica, fitted out
three ships with an armed force to plant a colony on the Panuco, a
river which pours into the Gulf a few degrees north of Villa Rica.
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