Note XVII-17 — Chapter XVII · COLONIZATION IN HONDURAS. 1524-1525.

Fitted out with sails and rigging of vessels seized from traders, and with pressed crews; the fleet was ordered to intercept any communication and aid for Honduras. Testimonio, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xii. 274-7. They were all the vessels that could be obtained, it seems. One or both of the small craft deserted and took refuge in Cuba, there to leave testimony. See also Relacion de los Oidores, in id., xiv. 43; Cortés, Cartas, 336. Bernal Diaz places the number of vessels at five and the soldiers at 100, naming 3 conquistadores. Hist. Verdad., 194. Out of the 150 the soldiers probably did number 100, and there may have been five vessels, for Herrera states that Cortés sent a ship with stores under Pedro Gonzalez to follow Casas. Off the very coast of Honduras he was overtaken by a storm which drove him back to Pánuco with the belief that the fleet must have perished, dec. iii. lib. v. cap. xiii. Gomara, Hist. Mex., 243, mentions only two vessels.