The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol 2 Part 17

About this time also, Ferdinand king of Hungary and king of the Romans wrote a letter to Cortes, in which he thanked him for the beautiful present of gold ornaments and jewels which he had sent him, adding, that he had heard, with much pleasure, of the great services he had above all things rendered to G.o.d, and then to his master and brother the emperor, and to the whole of Christendom, and that he should feel happy at all times to promote his interests with the emperor. Thus much he thought himself indebted to a man who possessed so many n.o.ble qualities, and who had rendered himself so meritorious; in like manner he wished to express his high esteem for his brave companions in arms.

This letter besides pa.s.sed many high encomiums on the Conquistadores, and I still remember that it was signed with the words, _I the king and Infante of Castile_, countersigned by the private secretary Castillejo.

I read the letter myself two or three times at Mexico, for Cortes shewed it to me in order to convince me of the great esteem in which we the true Conquistadores were held by his majesty.

As soon as these royal mandates and letters had been put into the hands of our agents, they despatched them in all haste to Mexico by a cousin of Cortes named Rodrigo de Paz, who was accompanied by Francisco de las Casas, a n.o.bleman of Estremadura, and also a relative of our general.

These gentlemen embarked in an excellent sailing vessel, and had a most favorable voyage. They stopped on their way at Cuba, and there, under sound of trumpet, published the decision which his majesty had come to in favour of Cortes, and they then demanded of Velasquez an account of the monies which had been expended in fitting out the armament. The governor of Cuba, however, took the unfavorable termination of his suit so to heart, that he fell ill and died shortly after very poor and unhappy.

In order to save myself the trouble of recurring to these matters, I must observe that Francisco de Montejo and Diego de Ordas did not forget to profit by their stay at the imperial court, and their endeavours proved very successful. Montejo was appointed governor and chief-justice of Yucatan and Cozumel, and was allowed to a.s.sume the Don before his name; and Diego de Ordas was confirmed in his New Spanish possessions, received a commendary of the order of St. Jago, and was allowed to a.s.sume the volcano of Huexotzinco in his escutcheon.

After these high honours had been conferred upon them, both these gentlemen returned to Mexico, though Ordas, after a lapse of three years, again returned to Spain, and obtained permission from the emperor to subdue the country on the river Marannon; he accordingly fitted out an armament for this purpose, but lost both his property and his life in the expedition.

When the bishop of Burgos found that everything had terminated in our favour, and heard of the great honours which his majesty had bestowed upon Cortes and upon all the Conquistadores, he naturally concluded that the gentlemen who had formed the commission of inquiry must have soon seen through all his doings with the governor of Cuba, and have been convinced that he had kept back all the gold which we had sent for his majesty to Spain, and that he had suppressed all mention of the great services we had rendered to the crown. These reflections preyed so hard upon his mind, that, like his creature Diego Velasquez, he fell dangerously ill, in which miserable state he had the additional vexation to see his nephew Don Alonso de Fonseca appointed to the archbishopric of Santiago, on which he had himself calculated.

I must now return to Rodrigo de Paz and Francisco de las Casas, who were sent to New Spain with the despatches containing Cortes' appointment of governor. They made their entry into Mexico in the most splendid manner, after which feasts and rejoicings took place, and couriers were despatched to every part of the country where Spaniards resided, to spread the happy news.

The gentlemen who had brought these despatches, and other persons who had accompanied them from Medellin were not forgotten by Cortes.

Francisco de las Casas he appointed a captain, and afterwards bestowed upon him the productive towns.h.i.+p of Anguitlan. Rodrigo de Paz was likewise presented with extensive and lucrative commendaries, besides that Cortes appointed him his private secretary and major-domo. This man gained so much influence that he ruled all those about him, and even Cortes himself. There was not a single person who had come to New Spain with Rodrigo de Paz on this occasion that was not handsomely rewarded; even the captain of the vessel in which they had arrived received so large a sum of money from Cortes that he returned to Spain a rich man.

I must now answer some questions which were put to me by a few gentlemen who had read this account; namely, how I, who was at that time in the interior of New Spain, and certainly occupied very differently than in relating what was going on in the other hemisphere, could vouch for the truth of what I had written of the occurrences which then took place in Spain; of the declaration of his holiness, of the accusations which were preferred against Cortes, and his defence before the royal commission by our agents, and of other matters?

My answer to them was, that, besides myself, the whole of my companions the veteran Conquistadores were duly informed of every circ.u.mstance. We had only to read the four or five accounts which our agents despatched to us in New Spain, to convince us how warmly they had our interest at heart; though I indeed remarked, as soon as I had perused these despatches, that all the endeavours of our agents were only exerted in behalf of Cortes and of themselves, and that we others, who had undergone all the fatigues and perils to place Cortes in that high and meritorious position, would have to toil to the last day of our lives.

However, we must pray to G.o.d mercifully to remember us, and to instil the thoughts into our emperor's mind likewise of rewarding us according to our merits, which we may fully hope for from his majesty, who is so good a catholic.

CHAPTER CLXIX.

_Of Cortes' plans after he had obtained the appointment of governor of New Spain; the way in which he distributes the Indians; and of other matters._

I and other of the most experienced and deserving of the veteran Conquistadores had always made sure that, as soon as Cortes should receive the appointment of governor of New Spain, he would remember the day when he set sail from Cuba, and that he would bring back to his mind the great troubles by which he was immediately after surrounded, and that he would have remembered all those of the men who, soon after he had landed with his troops in New Spain, had procured him the appointment of captain-general and chief justice of the country, and have borne in mind that we never for a moment left his side in all the subsequent battles and dangers. By heavens! he ought never to have forgotten any one of us,--we who always took his part, who exerted ourselves to the utmost for him on the occasion when a portion of the troops clamoured to return to Vera Cruz, and strove hard to persuade him to abandon all thoughts of the campaign against Mexico, on account of the vast power of this state and the great strength of its metropolis.

We were the same men who marched with him into Mexico, who a.s.sisted him in taking the powerful Motecusuma prisoner in the midst of his warriors, who lent him such efficient aid against Narvaez, and then instantly marched back with him to Mexico to the a.s.sistance of Alvarado; the same men who fought the terrific battles on the disastrous retreat from this city, and who had to mourn the loss of so many of their brave companions on that night of sorrows; the men by whose valour the memorable battle was gained on the plains of Otumpan; who again put down the insurrections in the provinces, conquered all the large towns.h.i.+ps which lay around the lake, and subdued the country; who rallied round his person when a conspiracy was set on foot by Villafana and others to put him to death; who patiently endured the indescribable fatigues and hards.h.i.+ps of the ninety-three days' siege of Mexico, during which time we had night and day encountered the attacks of an infuriated enemy until at length we placed him in possession of that strong city. We remained faithful to him when Christobal de Tapia arrived in New Spain with the appointment of governor. We wrote three several times to his majesty in praise of the great services he had rendered to the crown, extolling his loyalty to the skies, and begging of his majesty to confer upon him the appointment of governor. I will not even mention the many other great services which we rendered to our general; but certainly, after he had obtained the government of New Spain, he ought to have remembered the brave and courageous men who also, subsequent to the conquest of Mexico, made those severe campaigns to Colima, Zacatula, and Panuco, and those of the troops who from extreme poverty were obliged to relinquish the settlement founded by Alvarado at Tutepec.

We had altogether shared badly in the division of the Indians, and miserable districts of the country had been allotted to us, although his majesty had so often desired Cortes to reward our meritorious conduct, and to give us the preference in all matters. In all his letters which he wrote to his agents in Spain he ought never to have omitted mentioning our names with unbounded praise, and ought to have made it a point of obtaining from his majesty, for ourselves and children, the preference in all official appointments in New Spain: but he never gave this a thought; and on both occasions, the one when he obtained the appointment of governor, and the other when he went to Spain himself and became Marquis of Oaxaca, he only strove to further his own ends, and he forgot his brave companions in arms. Indeed, the most sensible and intelligent of the Conquistadores were quite of opinion that nothing would have been juster on the part of Cortes, and nothing more practicable at that time, than to have divided the whole of New Spain into five equal parts: one fifth, containing the best towns.h.i.+ps, to have been set apart for the crown; a second fifth for the churches, hospitals, and cloisters, and for gifts which his majesty might think proper of bestowing on those men who had distinguished themselves in the Italian campaigns or elsewhere; the three remaining fifths to have been divided among the whole of the true Conquistadores, according to their respective stations and merits, and this in perpetuity. At that time his majesty would have consented to such a division, as the whole of the conquest of New Spain never cost the crown anything, and his majesty himself had altogether a very imperfect notion of the country. Besides which, his majesty was then still in Flanders, and would have been pleased to know the country was in the hands of such faithful and courageous subjects.

But nothing of all this ever entered Cortes' mind, while our condition was daily growing worse; and at present there are even many of us veteran Conquistadores who have not the common necessaries of life! What will become of our children which we shall leave behind? But enough of all this; let us now see to whom Cortes distributed the towns.h.i.+ps.

The first persons who were rewarded by the governor were Francisco de las Casas and Rodrigo de Paz, with the royal factor, the inspector, and treasurer, who had come from Spain with those gentlemen. Then came a certain Avalos, and one Saavedra, both relatives of Cortes. Next follow Barrios, who was married to his sister-in-law Dona Xuarez; a certain Alonso Lucas, Juan and Luis de la Torre, Alonso Valiente, and the squinting Ribera. But these are only a few instances; for a person had only to come from Medellin,[41] or to stand in favour with some great personage, and flatter Cortes a little, and he was presented with some of the best lands in New Spain. I am not going to reproach Cortes for having remembered all these people, for there was plenty to do all this with, but certainly he should have given the preference to his soldiers, as he had been recommended to do by his majesty; to those men through whose a.s.sistance he was elevated to that high station. Whenever any campaign was in contemplation, or any battles to be fought, he never for an instant forgot where every individual man of us was to be found, and his commands to march to the field of battle never failed to reach us.

But I will put an end to my complaints of the neglect which we suffered, for now it cannot be remedied.

Though I must not forget to mention how conscious Cortes was of the injustice which he had done us, and that he even acknowledged it. After the death of Luis Ponce de Leon and of Marcos de Aguilar soon after, whom the former, as will be seen in the proper place, appointed his successor in the government, myself, with several officers and cavaliers of the veteran Conquistadores called upon Cortes, and begged of him, conformably to his majesty's commands, to give us some of the numerous Indians which fell to his share on that occasion. To this he replied, that we fared no worse than he himself did. "But," added he, "if his majesty should again be pleased to appoint me governor of New Spain, upon my conscience, I will repair the neglect you have suffered at my hands, and will bestow the best commendaries on those for whom his majesty intended them. You may depend upon it I will make good the great errors I have committed."

With these fine words and flattering promises he thought to satisfy the old and tried Conquistadores.

A little before Cortes received the appointment of governor, the new officers of the crown arrived in Mexico: these were Alonso de Estrada, of Ciudad Real, as royal treasurer; as factor, Gonzalo de Salazar; as accountant, Rodrigo de Albornoz, of Paladinos, (Julian de Alderete having died a short time previously); as veedor, Pedro Almindez Chirinos, a native of Ubeda, or of Baeza, besides many others.

About this time Rodrigo Rangel, although he was neither present at the siege of Mexico nor in many of the great battles we fought in New Spain, all of a sudden got it into his head that he must also reap some glory to himself; he therefore begged of Cortes to give him a small body of troops in order to put down the rebellion which had arisen among the Zapotec towns.h.i.+ps, and also that Pedro de Ircio might be allowed to join the expedition in order to support him with his good counsel. Cortes very well knew what kind of man Rangel was; that he was not fit for any kind of service, as he constantly suffered from ill health. He was gouty, had large swellings in his groins, was covered all over with sores, and so debilitated in strength that he could scarcely move along on his thin ulcerated legs. Cortes consequently refused this man his unreasonable request, representing to him what a ferocious people the Zapotecs were, and how excessively difficult it was to subdue a people like this who inhabited rugged mountains covered with eternal mists; that no cavalry could penetrate into their country, or, at most, they were wholly useless there; how, owing to the narrow and steep mountain paths, his men would only be able to march one abreast, and then with great risk of their lives, from the slippery state of the ground, which was covered with perpetual dew. For an expedition of this nature, continued Cortes, the most experienced and robust of soldiers were required, who thoroughly understood the art of war. Rangel, however, was a very conceited fellow, and also a native of Medellin, and solicited so strongly that Cortes at length granted him his request; but, from what we afterwards heard, it would appear that Cortes only gave way to him to rid himself for ever of this man, who was of a malicious disposition, thinking he would never survive this campaign. However, this is very little to the purpose, and I will rather acquaint the reader that letters arrived from Cortes to twelve of us soldiers who had settled in Guacasualco, with orders for us to accompany Rangel on this expedition.

I was likewise among the number, and it happened that all twelve of us were neighbours.

I have already informed the reader, in a previous chapter, that the country of the Zapotecs consists of high mountains; how nimble and courageous the inhabitants are, and how they communicate with each other by means of piping, the shrill sound of which reechoes through all the valleys. In such a place it may readily be imagined that a man like Rangel, and the troops under such a leader, would not be able to achieve anything. Wherever we came, the inhabitants had fled away; besides which, the houses were not built together as in other towns.h.i.+ps of New Spain, but straggling about, some on the mountains, others in the valleys. The rainy season had just set in when we arrived in this wild country, and poor Rangel suffered so violently from the swellings in his groins, that he cried out aloud in the agonies of pain. The rest of us, therefore, were not a little annoyed that we were compelled to sacrifice our time for such a man; however, he was soon convinced himself that all his trouble was to no purpose, and he resolved to relinquish the expedition, and to allow the men to return to their respective abodes.

Pedro de Ircio, whom Rangel had purposely taken with him to profit by his good counsel, was the first who advised this latter step, and left him to return to Vera Cruz, where he had settled. Rangel himself marched back with us to Guacasualco, the warm climate of which he affirmed would agree best with his health. This we looked upon as a greater calamity even than marching out with him into the field of battle; however, we were obliged to submit, and we put the best face we could on the matter.

When we had arrived in Guacasualco, he got it into his head to march to Cimatan and Talatupan, in order to put down the insurrection which still continued in these provinces. The inhabitants there princ.i.p.ally confided in the strength of their positions, which lay between rivers, swamps, and marshy ground, where every step was attended with danger; besides which, they were remarkably expert archers, and the arrow which flew from their enormous bows seldom missed its aim.

In order that we might not dispute his word, Rangel produced his instructions from Cortes, in which he was also commanded to march against the rebellious provinces of Cimatan and Talatupan; he, therefore, in his capacity of commander-in-chief, summoned all the inhabitants of Guacasualco to join him in the expedition, and we stood in such awe of Cortes' mandates that we durst not offer the slightest opposition to Rangel's authority; and above one hundred of us, with all our horses, about twenty-six musketeers and crossbow-men, marched out with him. We pa.s.sed through Tonala Ayagualulco, Copilco, Zacualco, crossed several rivers in canoes; and then marched through Teut.i.tan and the towns.h.i.+ps of Chontalpa, until within twenty miles of Cimatan. Thus far the whole country was in profound peace; but a little further on we found the whole armed force of the country drawn up against us, strongly posted between the swamps and dangerous pa.s.ses, having fortified their position by ramparts and a palisade, from which they flew their arrows at us through loop-holes. When we had arrived near enough, the enemy showered their arrows so quickly upon us, that six of our horses were killed and eight men wounded. Rangel himself, who was seated on horseback, received a slight wound in the arm. We, the veteran Conquistadores, had often told him what bold, crafty, and expert warriors he would have to encounter here, and now he began to believe so himself; and as he was a man who talked a good deal, he said if he had followed our advice this would not have happened to him; and, for the future, he desired we would take upon ourselves the command of the troops during this campaign.

After the wounds of our men and those of our horses had been dressed, Rangel desired me to reconnoitre the enemy's position, and take with me two of our most active musketeers, and a remarkably fierce dog which he possessed; he himself, as he had been advised, would follow me at some distance behind with the cavalry and the rest of our troops. When I, with my two companions, approached near to Cimatan, we came up to other fortifications equally as strong as the former, from out of which we were greeted with a cloud of arrows and darts. The poor dog lay instantly dead at our feet, and I myself should have shared a similar fate if my jacket had not been very thickly quilted with cotton, for I was wounded in no less than seven places by the enemy's arrows, one of which struck my leg; nor did my two companions fare better. I now called out to some of our Indian troops, who were close behind us, to hasten back and call the whole of the foot to our a.s.sistance, but to desire the cavalry not to advance, as they would not be able to manoeuvre here, and would only expose their horses to the enemy's unerring arrows.

With the musketeers, crossbow-men, and the remaining foot, we now marched forward in a body to the attack, and very soon beat the enemy out of their entrenchments, who then retreated precipitately to the swamps, where it was impossible to follow them without great risk, for the ground was of so spongy a nature that the moment we set foot on it we sank down, and it was with great difficulty a person was got out again.

By this time Rangel had come up with the horse, and we quartered ourselves in a number of houses which stood together, and were quite deserted by the inhabitants; here we remained quiet for the remaining part of the day and dressed our wounds. The next morning we marched direct for Cimatan itself, and our route lay through extensive open plains, in which there were many dangerous bogs. In one of these the enemy lay in wait for us, and certainly they had calculated well in taking up their position here, for they easily foresaw, when the cavalry, in the heat of the battle, spread themselves in the open plain, they could not fail to get into the swampy ground, where they would be unable to move. We had many times cautioned Rangel about this, but he refused to listen to our advice; and, indeed, he was the first to get fixed in the bogs, where he lost his horse, and would himself undoubtedly have been killed if several of us had not hastened to his a.s.sistance, for several Indians had already laid hold of him to carry him off and sacrifice him to their idols. He thus narrowly escaped with his life, though his head, which, besides, was covered with sores, had been shockingly beat about by the enemy.

As this district was very thickly populated, and there was another towns.h.i.+p not very far off, we determined to march thither; but the inhabitants, on our approach, fled precipitately. Here we halted for a short time to dress Rangel's wounds and those of three other soldiers.

The next towns.h.i.+p we came to was likewise deserted by its inhabitants; but in this neighbourhood the enemy had thrown up a very formidable entrenchment, with a palisade of uncommon strength, supplied with loop-holes. Here we had scarcely rested a quarter of an hour when the enemy came suddenly pouring forth into the town from all sides, and fell upon us with so much intrepidity that they killed one of our men and two horses, and it was with the utmost difficulty we could succeed in driving them back again.

Our friend Rangel suffered greatly from the wounds he had received on his head; besides which he was tormented by the moschitoes and a large species of bat which bite people and suck their blood, so that he could get no rest day or night; and as it rained without intermission, he, with several of the men who had recently arrived from Spain, grew heartily sick of this mode of warfare; these soldiers brought forcibly to his mind the bad state of his health, the little advantage we had gained by the three several battles we had fought with the enemy, and how we had lost eleven horses and two men, besides that numbers were wounded, and that it would be impossible to accomplish anything more in a country so full of swamps and mora.s.ses. All this Rangel listened to with secret delight, for to turn back was the very thing he so ardently desired himself; however, in order to save appearances, and that it might seem as if his determination of marching back to Guacasualco was upon the advice and at the request of the troops themselves, he called a council of war, for which he selected those only whom he well knew would be of the same opinion with himself. I, with twenty of the men, just at that moment returned from a short excursion to some cacao plantations in the neighbourhood to try if we could not capture a few of the natives, and we had the good luck to bring in three females and two men prisoners. When I arrived in Rangel's quarters, he took me aside; he spoke a good deal about the terrible wounds on his head, and a.s.sured me that the greater part of the troops had advised him to relinquish the expedition and return to Cortes in Mexico.

I declared myself against this step without any hesitation; and, as we had known each other for four years, even before we left Cuba, I said boldly to him, "How, Senor; you have advanced up to Cimatan, and now wish to return? What will Cortes think of this, and what will your enemies say? How they will always throw in your teeth that you were neither able to gain any advantage over the Zapotecs nor to subdue the inhabitants of this province, although you had among your troops some of the most experienced of the Conquistadores, of those who settled in Guacasualco! Here not your honour alone is at stake but ours also; wherefore I, with a number of my companions, have determined further to explore these swamps and mountains, and to force our way into Cimatan, the princ.i.p.al towns.h.i.+p of the province. My horse you may give to some other soldier who is expert in handling the lance, it is of no use to me in this country, for, on account of the bad state of the ground, the cavalry are always obliged to remain behind the rest of the troops."

As Rangel was a great talker, and a man who soon fell into a pa.s.sion, he jumped up from his seat, immediately ordered all the troops to a.s.semble around him, and cried out to them, "The die is cast! by heavens! (for he could scarcely say two words together without swearing.) We must march forward! I am now convinced of the policy of so doing, since Bernal Diaz del Castillo has explained to me what our duty is. He is perfectly right in what he says."

Many of the men were certainly anything but pleased with this second determination of Rangel; on the other hand, however, several were delighted, and thus we marched forward again. I, at the head of the musketeers and crossbow-men, marched in advance with every military precaution, the cavalry following at some distance. The first town we came to was quite deserted by the inhabitants; we therefore continued our march towards Cimatan itself. Here we met with a very stout resistance from the enemy before we could drive them to flight, and take possession of the towns. Many of the Indians as they fled set fire to their own dwellings, and all the prisoners we took were about fifteen men and women, but we immediately set them at liberty again, and despatched them with a kind message to their countrymen, desiring them to send amba.s.sadors to us, and conclude peace with us, when we would freely pardon their past hostilities. These prisoners soon returned with their relations and a great number of poor people, among whom we distributed all the booty we had made. The whole of these people then left, and promised they would persuade the enemy to send us messengers of peace, and declare themselves va.s.sals of our emperor; but they took very good care neither to return themselves, nor to send us any message whatever. Upon this Rangel turned to me, and said: "By heavens, you have deceived me! You may now therefore go with some of your companions, and just catch me an equal number of Indians, as I have lost by thus following your advice." I did not give him an opportunity of repeating this command, but I immediately marched off at the head of fifty men, and attacked some houses which lay among the marshes. The inhabitants fled precipitately, and sought refuge among the large thorn bushes, which they term Xiguaquetlan, where it was impossible for any one to penetrate without being severely wounded by the sharp p.r.i.c.kles; we managed, however, to capture twelve men and women among the cacao plantations, whom we presented to our captain. This put him into so good a humour again, that he liberated these prisoners, and despatched them with a very friendly message to the enemy, but all to no purpose; the Cimatecs still defied us, and we were thus obliged to return to Guacasualco without accomplis.h.i.+ng our object.

These are the two campaigns of Rangel, in which he thought to have reaped so much glory, when he so ardently solicited Cortes to bestow the chief command on him. Two years after we made a more successful expedition against the Zapotecs, and we completely subdued them, and other provinces in that quarter. The pious father Olmedo also did his utmost to give them some notion of the holy Christian religion: he taught them the articles of faith, preached to them, and of these Indians alone he baptized above a hundred; but he was unable to continue this holy occupation very long, as he was growing old and infirm; besides that, his enfeebled frame could not stand the ruggedness of the roads.

I must now, however, return to Mexico, and relate what magnificent presents Cortes sent to his Majesty in Spain.

CHAPTER CLXX.

_How Cortes sends a present to his majesty; 80,000 pesos in gold and silver, besides a magnificent field-piece made of silver and gold, covered with various beautiful figures; also how he sends his father Martin Cortes above 5000 pesos._

Cortes had by this time collected about 80,000 pesos, and now also the field-piece was finished, which received the name of Phoenix, and was in every way a present worthy of the acceptance of so renowned a sovereign as our great emperor. This beautiful cannon was cast of silver, and bore the following inscription:

No bird like this was ever born, As a servant I have no second, And you have not your equal in the world.

Cortes therefore determined to forward all this treasure to his majesty in Spain, and commissioned a n.o.bleman of Toledo, named Diego de Soto to be the bearer: whether Juan de Ribera, who squinted with one eye, and had been Cortes' private secretary, accompanied this gentleman, I cannot exactly remember; but one thing I know, that very little reliance could be placed in his honesty. I also imagined that he played falsely at cards and cheated at dice; besides which he possessed many other bad qualities. I merely mention all this because he behaved so villanously to Cortes in Spain, for he not only kept back the money which the latter confided to his care for his father Martin Cortes,[42] but he repaid kindness with ingrat.i.tude, and so far forgot all the favours which Cortes had bestowed upon him, that, instead of speaking good of our general, or even the truth, he calumniated his benefactor in every possible manner. As this Ribera was a man who possessed considerable eloquence, and as he had been private secretary to Cortes, his aspersions were generally credited in Spain, by the bishop of Burgos in particular; and he created the more evil, as at that time Narvaez, Christobal de Tapia, and the agents of Velasquez had renewed their charges against Cortes, complaining to his majesty that he could not depend upon the honesty of the decision to which the commissioners had come, as Cortes had bribed them all with valuable presents. All this created a most unfavorable change in Cortes' affairs, and he fell so greatly into his majesty's displeasure that matters, in all likelihood, would have terminated most unfavorably for him if the duke of Bejar, who was greatly attached to Cortes, had not employed his utmost endeavours for him and become his bail until he should be summoned to take his trial in due form. The duke's reason for espousing Cortes' cause so warmly was, because the preliminaries of a marriage had been settled between the latter and a niece of the duke. This lady's name was Juana de Zunniga, daughter to the earl of Aguilar Don Carlos de Arellano, and she had also a brother who was a great favorite with the emperor. As about this time also the 80,000 pesos, with the other valuable presents arrived in Spain, accompanied by letters from Cortes, in which he expressed to his majesty his thanks for the great honours which his majesty had bestowed upon him, and for the just sentence he had p.r.o.nounced in his favour; the inquiries which were going to be inst.i.tuted against him were dropped, and the storm which was gathering over him blew over. But now again the proud inscription which he had placed on the silver field-piece created a great deal of ill-feeling towards him, and several of the dukes, marquisses and earls, who had likewise rendered great services to our emperor, considered it amazingly presumptuous that Cortes should attempt, by this inscription, to raise his merits so far above all others. Even his greatest patrons, the admiral of Castile, the duke of Bejar, and the earl of Aguilar, greatly disapproved of this self-praise.[43] But why, I ask, should they term this presumptuous in our general? Can any one mention to me another general who has accomplished so many heroic deeds as Cortes, or who has conquered for our emperor a country of the magnitude of New Spain, or who has been the means of converting so many thousands of heathens to Christianity? Though, to be sure, the merit and glory of all this is not due to Cortes alone, but also to his brave companions in arms! We have equally merited for ourselves grants of land and honorable escutcheons, with those brave men of former times who were so honoured by their monarchs!

With respect to the beautiful field-piece, we further received information that it was presented to his majesty by the comendador-mayor of Leon, Don Francisco de las Cobos, but that it was never removed from Seville, for it was smelted there and the value of the metal was altogether estimated at 20,000 ducats. This present, with all those which Cortes sent on former occasions to Spain, though some unfortunately never reached their place of destination, not only spread the fame of Cortes to all parts of the empire, but throughout the whole of christendom, and his name was in every person's mouth. Neither must I forget to mention, that after Martin Cortes had in vain demanded of the squinting Ribera to deliver up the money to him which had been sent by our general, he commenced an action against him; to which, however, an end was speedily put by the death of Ribera, who fell ill on a journey to the town of Cadahalso, after eating too heartily of fat bacon. His death was so sudden that he had not even time to confess his sins; may G.o.d have mercy on his poor soul! Amen!

While all this was going on in Spain, Cortes was very busily employed in rebuilding the city of Mexico, and he strove by every possible means to increase its population by holding out rewards to the inhabitants of the country to settle there. For this purpose he declared the town free from all tribute, until all the buildings should be completed, the causeways, aqueducts and bridges repaired, and the churches and the hospitals were entirely finished both inside and out.[44] The superintendence of the latter he gave to the excellent father Olmedo, who had already brought together all the Indians who were suffering from ill health, and attended to them with the most affectionate care. But about this time there likewise arrived in Vera Cruz twelve Franciscan monks from Spain, who were accompanied by the very pious father, Martin de Valencia, whom his holiness had appointed vicar-general of New Spain. He was a native of the village of Valencia de san Juan, in the district of Campo, and we shall see in the following chapter how this reverend father was received in Mexico.