Note VII‑11 — Chapter VII · ALVARADO'S EXPEDITION TO PERU. 1531-1536.

In the estimate of the total Spanish force authors mainly agree, but the number of cavalry is variously stated, and even the official letters of Alvarado are contradictory on this point. Herrera, dec. v. lib. vi. cap. i., gives 500 as the total, of whom 227 were cavalry. Oviedo, iv. 240, mentions 600, with 240 cavalry. According to a legal investigation made in Guatemala in 1536 his whole force was 500 and his cavalry 230, Informacion echa en Santiago Set. 15, 1536; and this is the estimate here adopted. Alvarado, Carta, Squier's MSS., xix. 1-4, writing to the emperor a few days before his departure from Puerto de la Posesion, states that he had 450 men including 260 horse, and, a few weeks later, writing from Puerto Viejo to the governor of Panamá, says that he set sail from Nicaragua with 500 men of whom 220 were cavalry.