Note 1017 — Chapter XXX · CONSTRUCTION OF THE FLEET. December, 1520-February, 1521.

Such are in substance the famous regulations of Cortés. The document was witnessed on the 22d of December by the leading officers, before Juan de Ribera, ‘notary public in all the kingdoms of Spain,’ and was publicly read at the review of the troops, the 26th, by Anton García, crier. The full text has been reproduced in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 445-51, and Cortés, Escritos Sueltos, 13-23, owing to the defects of the copy by Prescott, and the briefness and blunders of earlier references to it.