Chapter Twenty: THE LEGEND IN CUBA

The Jade Steps
Chapter Twenty: The Legend in Cuba

“Señor Aguilar!” Malinali shouted with a bright smile. She had spotted him sitting under a large ceiba tree at the edge of Tlaxcala’s market eating his mid-day meal. He returned her smile. “Doña Marina!” he called back. “Would you care to join me?”

She sat down next to him. “It seems so long since I saw you last,” she said.

“Yes – well, you learned Spanish so fast, while I have been slow at learning Nahuatl, that there was little need to help you translating for Captain Cortez,” came his reply. “What I really needed to do was learn to be a soldier again after being a Mayan slave for those long eight years. So I have been with the soldiers.”

“Would you like to learn Nahuatl?” she asked. “I can teach you.” Aguilar considered it for a moment, then answered, “I would like that – Nahuatl is very different from Mayan, but I should try. If I can find the time, that is, for a soldier is kept very busy.”

“You don’t look very busy to me,” came a nearby voice. “Bernal!” both Malinali and Aguilar exclaimed at the same time. “Do I understand that now Doña Marina is going to be your teacher instead of the other way around?” Bernal asked Aguilar with a grin. Aguilar shook his head. “I’m afraid so.”

They chatted happily for a while, then Malinali had a thought. “Bernal, I have a question for you.” Her eyes had a mischievous twinkle. “Why are Captain Cortez and Diego Velasquez – the governor, as you call him, of your island of Cuba – enemies?”

Bernal smiled and Aguilar laughed out loud. “Ah, Doña Marina, the soldiers tell so many stories about these two,” said Aguilar. “But I don’t know which ones are true or false because I was in the Mayan jungles. Let us hope Señor Castillo can enlighten us!”

Then Bernal’s smile changed to a frown. “It is a good story, yes – but there are certain parts to it that might make Doña Marina uncomfortable.”

Malinali gave him a puzzled look. “I have been uncomfortable before. Please continue, Señor Castillo,” she said with mocking courtesy.

“Very well. It starts, as stories about Cortez seem to always do with…” Bernal looked at Malinali and hesitated… “a woman. Her name was Catalina Suarez. She was the daughter of Don Diego Velasquez’s best friend, Juan Suarez. She was very beautiful, attracted Cortez’s eye, and became his mistress. But Cortez’s eyes always wandered, and when he stopped seeing her, she complained to her father that Cortez had broken his promise to marry her.

“Her father complained to Don Diego, who ordered Cortez to marry her. Cortez is not a man you give orders to, so he of course refused. Don Diego threw him into prison. Cortez is not a man you can keep in a jail for long. He escaped through a window in his cell, and claimed sanctuary in the church of Baracoa. Don Diego ordered Baracoa’s alguacil, constable, Juan Escudero – yes, the man who was hung at Villa Rica[1] – to violate the church’s sanctuary and arrest Cortez anyway.

“Many people were upset about this, so Don Diego decided he had to get rid of the problem quickly. He had Cortez shackled in irons and put onto a ship that was to sail for Spain the next day. All the years of Cortez’s work to create a good life and home in this New World were lost. He was now ruined, destined to return penniless to Spain.

“But the chains on his wrists and feet were loose. For hours in the dark in the belly of the ship, he slowly worked his hands and feet free at the cost of much skin and blood. As he had escaped the prison through a window, he now squeezed through a porthole, lowered himself into the water, and swam ashore.

“Now Cortez did what made him a legend in Cuba. Wet and bleeding, he went to his home, cleaned himself, put on fresh clothes, then his armor – chain mail, breastplate, greaves, helmet – strapped on his finest Toledo sword, saddled his best horse, and rode straight for the mansion of Governor Don Diego. It was very late at night, almost dawn, and the household including the guards were all asleep. Cortez stole quietly into the mansion, up the stairs, and into Don Diego’s private bedroom. Don Diego was awakened by the cold tip of Cortez’s steel sword at his throat.

“‘Please do not move or make a sound, Señor Velasquez,’ Cortez whispered to the governor. ‘We are going to settle our differences here and now.’ You can imagine Don Diego’s amazement – and fright. He saw that Cortez was prepared to kill him where he lay. He quickly promised Cortez a pardon for his ‘transgressions.’

“‘What transgressions?’ Cortez asked angrily. Don Diego felt the steel press deeper into his skin. ‘You are the transgressor – throwing me into jail for breaking a promise I never made, breaking the holy sanctuary of a church to seize me, ruining me and sending me back to Spain in chains. Please tell me, Señor, why I should pardon you and spare your life?’

“Don Diego is fat and greedy, but he is not stupid nor a coward. He looked straight at Cortez and told him, ‘Because if you kill me you will hang. But if you don’t kill me I will double your property and wealth. All will be forgiven as if it, including this moment, never happened. This I promise you on my honor as a Spanish caballero, gentleman.’ Upon hearing these words and that promise, Cortez removed his sword from Don Diego’s throat. ‘That I can accept,’ he said.

“Yet Don Diego continued to look at Cortez. ‘I must ask something from you in return,’ he said, ‘I must ask you to marry the Señorita Juarez.’ Cortez angrily sheathed his sword. ‘Don Diego – I will not threaten you again because we now have an agreement of honor. But why do you insist on prolonging the issue that caused our problem in the first place?’ ‘Because,’ replied Don Diego, ‘it is a matter of honor between me and the lady’s father – and it should be a matter of honor with you.’

“Cortez made a face. ‘Honor – for me? Why?’ he asked. ‘Because the lady is with child – your child,’ was Don Diego’s answer.”

Bernal braced himself for Malinali’s reaction. She gasped as her head snapped back in shock. Her eyes turned inward as she took a slow deep breath. She then looked steadily at him. “Please continue, Bernal,” she said calmly.

“Taken aback, Cortez said, ‘This I did not know.’ We who understand Cortez know what he calculated. Marrying Catalina would be his best insurance that Don Diego would continue to keep his word. So Cortez smiled and bowed before the governor in his bed. ‘Very well,’ he said, ‘I agree. The Lady Catalina shall be my wife.’ He extended his hand to Don Diego. ‘We have a pacto de caballeros, an agreement of honor between gentlemen.’ They shook hands, and Cortez said, “And the doubling of my wealth and property you talked of can be a wedding present from you!” Cortez did not let go of Don Diego’s hand until the governor nodded in agreement.

“As word of this episode spread in Cuba and Hispaniola, it made Cortez a figure of legend. But Cortez knew this could be dangerous for him as it was so embarrassing to Don Diego. So he married Catalina as soon as he could – this was in the Year of Our Lord 1514 – and worked as hard as he could on his property, raising his cattle, mining his gold, so that before long he had the finest hacienda in Cuba on the river Duaban and was very wealthy. He also worked hard at befriending Don Diego and was so successful that he became alcalde, mayor, of Santiago.”

Malinali nodded her head. “Yes, he told me about being an alcalde – but not about… the lady Catalina. What about her… and their child?”

Bernal looked at her with sympathy in his eyes – and sadness. “The child was stillborn, and she almost died in childbirth. From then on, her heart was very weak and any work made her very tired. Her health was broken, and some say her spirit as well. She was never with child again.

“Cortez tried to make her happy, spent a lot of money on her and on entertaining her friends and family at his hacienda. His eyes began wandering again, of course, because women flew to Cortez like bees to honey, and how could he resist? Even though, at the same time, Cortez began going to church more often, going to Mass almost daily and praying.

“He was constantly making new friends and was so generous with them many were in his debt, yet he never asked to be repaid. One in particular was Andres de Duero, the governor’s secretary. When Don Diego announced the formation of a third expedition to this strange new land discovered by Hernandez de Cordoba and Juan de Grijalva, Andres de Duero convinced Don Diego to name Cortez as the expedition leader. Within two weeks Cortez had secured six ships and four hundred men – I was one. Men raced to join the standard of the legendary Cortez – some even sailing from Hispaniola like Francisco Rodriguez Magariño to do so.

“Cortez spent all the money he had saved on outfitting the ships, and borrowed all the money he could on his hacienda and other properties. He dressed the part of a great leader, going about in a black velvet cloak with golden knots and a hat with plumes of feathers. He was in a great hurry, because he knew that all of Velasquez’s relatives and friends wanted the expedition taken away from him and given to them. When word came to him from Andres de Duero that Don Diego was about to issue orders canceling Cortez’s authority, Cortez decided to sail that very night.

“The one thing he did not have enough of was food for his men. So he went to Santiago’s desolladero, slaughterhouse, and seized all the stored meat, and every pig, cow, and sheep waiting for slaughter. When the butcher Fernando Alonso complained the city would have nothing to eat, Cortez took off the large gold chain around his neck and gave it to him for ‘his trouble.’

“Señor Alonso was too scared of being punished for letting Cortez take the city’s meat supply, so he went to the governor’s mansion to explain to Don Diego. ‘This makes it final,’ the governor said. ‘Now Cortez is finished.’ But it was late at night, so Don Diego went to sleep. At dawn he awoke, and with a detachment of soldiers he went to the port to have Cortez arrested. He was stunned to see Cortez’s ships sailing away on the morning tide! The only ship not yet underway was Cortez’s flagship, the Santa Elena.

“Don Diego and his men stood helpless on the wharf, calling out to Cortez on his ship, who proceeded to climb down into a small rowboat with two sailors who rowed him to within shouting distance of the governor, but beyond the range of the crossbows or muskets of the soldiers.

“‘Captain Cortez, my compadre, my good friend, what are you doing?’ Don Diego yelled. Cortez stood up in the rowboat. ‘My Governor,’ he yelled back, ‘all has been prepared and it is time for us to go. What are your orders?’

Don Diego was so stunned by this question, at Cortez being so desconcado, shameless and daring, that he opened his mouth but no words came out. At his silence, Cortez reached for his plumed hat, swept it before him as he bowed to the governor, then had his sailors row him back to his ship. Don Diego and his men stood on the wharf and watched the Santa Elena sail away.[2]

“I saw this with my own eyes from the deck of the Santa Elena. It was a wonder to behold.”

“Cortez is a wonder to behold, true,” said Aguilar. “Though I have a question. How was it that so many Velasquez men came on the expedition and why did they sail on that morning with Cortez?”

Bernal smiled. “That is a good question, my friend. As I said, Don Diego is not stupid. He made sure many of his friends and people loyal to him signed on. Cortez could not object, but he knew who they were. He convinced them that all the preparations, and the early departure, were at Don Diego’s request. So Cortez proved himself far more clever than our Governor Velasquez. He has now won over Velasquez’s friends to his side. Yet I think we may still see a surprise from Don Diego, who hates more than ever a man who has humiliated him twice and is legendary for it.”

“What sort of surprise?” Aguilar asked. Bernal shrugged his shoulders. “I think we should not worry about it,” said Malinali. “I think, Señor Aguilar, we should thank Señor Castillo for such a long answer to my question.” They all laughed together. “So, Aguilar,” Malinali continued, “let’s start your lessons in Nahuatl. Bernal, would you care to learn some words with us?”

[1] See Chapter Thirteen:  The Bromas.
[2] November 18, 1518.