Alonso de Ávila, the third of Grijalva’s brave lieutenants, had also a pleasant face and liberal disposition, combined with good reasoning power, but was altogether too loud-spoken and argumentative, and had an overbearing manner that created many enemies. He was about thirty-three years of age. Cristóbal de Olid, a year his junior, was a well formed, strong-limbed man, with wide shoulders and a somewhat fair complexion. Despite the peculiarity of a groove in the lower lip, which gave it the appearance of being split, the face was most attractive, and the powerful voice helped to bear him out as a good talker. While lacking in sincerity and depth of thought, and being little fit for the council, he possessed qualities which, in connection with great bravery and determination, made him an admirable executive officer; but an ambition to command began to assert itself, and directed by evil influence it brought about his fall a few years later. Bernal Diaz calls him a very Hector in combat, and possessing, among other good qualities, that of being liberal; on the whole an excellent man, though unfit to be a leader.[109] The youngest of the captains, the most worshipful and the most lovable, was Gonzalo de Sandoval, an hidalgo of only twenty-two years, from Cortés’ own town, the son of a fortress commandant, but with merely a rudimentary education. Brave, intrepid, and with a good head, he was equally determined in speech and in deportment, yet with a faultless obedience and loyalty that won the confidence and esteem of his chief. With a strict eye to discipline, he possessed also a kind, humane disposition, which gained the love and respect of his men, whose comfort he studied far more than his own. Plain in dress, and modest in manner and aspiration, he was free from the greed which tainted so many around him. A soldier in all qualities of the heart and mind, he was also physically fitted for one. In battle he was as wrathful and as beautiful as Apollo when he slew the Python. The robust frame, with its high chest and broad shoulders, supported a full face adorned with short, curly, nut-brown hair. The powerful voice, inclining at times to a lisp, was exhibited more in the issue of brief command than in conversation; for Don Gonzalo was as energetic to act as he was chary of words. The slightly bow-legged limbs indicated an early training for the saddle. Indeed, equestrian exercises were his delight, and his horse Motilla, a chestnut with a white foot and a star on the forehead, is described by Bernal Diaz as the finest he ever saw. Sandoval stands before us not only as an admirable man, but as an ideal officer, in his combined qualities of juvenile ardor and prudence, valor and humanity, modesty of disposition and purity of heart. Cortés spoke of him after his death with feelings of deepest regret, and represented him to the emperor as one of the finest soldiers in the world, fit to command armies.[110]