Note XVII-8 — Chapter XVII · COLONIZATION IN HONDURAS. 1524-1525.

The agent, Alonso de Contreras, had received 8,000 pesos de oro for the purpose, in order that the expedition should not be hampered for want of means, nor be obliged to prey at once upon the natives. Oviedo, iii. 459. Cortés estimates the total cost of the expedition at over 50,000 ducats. Mem., in Doc. Inéd., iv. 227; Instruc., in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiii. 5; Gastos, in id., xii. 386, with details of expenses. The purchases were made ere the presence of the fleet should raise prices at Habana, and yet a fanega of maize cost two pesos de oro, a sword eight pesos, a crossbow twenty, and a firelock one hundred; while a shipmaster received eight hundred pesos a month. Gomara, Hist. Mex., 243.