The man who perceives the most in any endeavor, military or otherwise, is the low level leader; not the top man or the common man. The man at the top misses much of the typical man’s experience. Likewise, the simple man, responsible only for himself and the fellow next to him, has little conception of the angst that haunts his commander, the weight of decision, and the enhanced fear of failure that comes with taking responsibility for others. Indeed, the common man is not always even responsible for deciding on his own course of action, but is a leaf on the wind blown by his betters.
“I, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, citizen and governor of the most loyal city of Santiago de Guatemala, one of the first discoverers and conquerors of New Spain and its provinces…native of the most noble and famous city of Medina del Campo, and son of its former governor Francisco Diaz del Castillo, known as the Courteous—and his legal wife Maria Diez Rejon—may their souls rest in glory!—tell you the story of myself and my comrades; all true conquerors, who served His Majesty in the discovery, conquest, pacification, and settlement of the provinces of New Spain; one of the finest regions of the New World yet discovered, this expedition being undertaken by our own efforts, and without His Majesty’s knowledge.
“My ancestors having always been servants of the Crown, and my father and one of my brothers being in the service of the Catholic Kings, Don Ferdinand and Dona Isabella, I wished in some sort to emulate them. When, therefore, in the Year of Our Lord 1514 a gentleman named Pedrarias Davila went out as Governor of Tierra Firme, I agreed to accompany him to the newly conquered country, and after an uneventful voyage we arrived at Nombre de Dios, as it was called.
“Some three or four months, however, after the settlement was made, there came an epidemic from which soldiers died, and all the rest of us were ill with bad ulcers on the legs. In addition, there were disputes between the Governor and a rich gentleman named Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who had conquered the province and was then commander of the army. Pedrarias Davila had given him his daughter in marriage but had afterwards been suspicious that his son-in-law might raise rebellion and lead a band towards the Southern Sea. He had therefore given orders that Balboa should be beheaded and certain of his soldiers disciplined.
“As we were witnesses of these events, and of other revolts among the captains, and as news had reached us that the island of Cuba had lately been conquered and settled, under the governorship of a kinsmen of mine named Diego Velazquez, some of us gentlemen and persons of quality who had come out with Pedrarias Davila decided to ask his permission to go there. This he readily gave us, since he did not require all the soldiers he had brought out from Spain, the province being a small one and now entirely conquered.”
Permission granted, Bernal and his companions make no delay and board a ‘good ship’ for Cuba.
Tierra Firme was in present day Panama, which was not nearly as pestilential as it would become after the European invasion, as mosquitos carrying malaria and yellow fever would soon be imported in the water barrels of the slave ships bearing the African replacements for the natives being slaughtered and worked to death under Davila and the governors.
