RIVAL GOVERNORS IN HONDURAS AND NICARAGUA.
1526-1530.
COLONIAL POLICY—SALCEDO DISPLACES SAAVEDRA IN THE
GOVERNMENT OF HONDURAS—SAAVEDRA'S ESCAPE—PEDRARIAS'
ENVOYS TRAPPED—SALCEDO INVADES NICARAGUA—HIS CRUELTY
AND EXTORTION—DISTRESS AMONG THE COLONISTS—RIOS
ALSO PRESENTS CLAIMS, BUT IS DISCOMFITED—PEDRARIAS
FOLLOWS TRIUMPHANT—SALCEDO'S IGNOMINIOUS FATE—ESTETE'S
EXPEDITION—SLAVE-HUNTING PROFITS AND HORRORS—GLADIATORIAL
PUNISHMENT OF REVOLTED NATIVES—PEDRARIAS' SCHEMES FOR
AGGRANDIZEMENT—HE GRASPS AT SALVADOR AND LONGS FOR PERU—BOTH
ELUDE HIM—FURTHER MORTIFICATION AND DEATH—CHARACTER OF THE
CONQUERORS.
One of the chief causes which gave rise to the disputes of rival
leaders for the occupancy of Nicaragua and Honduras was the policy which
governed the Council of the Indies in regard to the colonial possessions
of Spain. Gradually the discovery of Columbus had assumed gigantic
proportions, and the indefinite and unknown limits to the territories
which had been given to the first governors were becoming more fixed and
determined. The immense extent of the discovery and the vast dominions
which had been allotted to each colony was then first ascertained.
It was deemed wise and prudent by the court of Spain that such broad
possessions should be divided into smaller states, and governed by
many, rather than that the whole should be under the jurisdiction of
a few arrogant viceroys. Thus checks could be more easily placed on
individuals, and the distant provinces of the New World could be more
readily held in subjection. With this in view it was that Hernandez
de Córdoba had been urged by the audiencia to throw off allegiance to
Pedrarias, and that the enterprises not only of Gil Gonzalez but of Olid
had been encouraged by the Spanish government.[XXI-1]
But a resort to arms as a method for settling their differences was by
no means desired; and when the emperor became aware that hostilities had
broken out among the colonists of Honduras and Nicaragua he peremptorily
forbade any Spaniard to draw his sword against another, under penalty of
his severe displeasure. The better to curb the encroaching conquerors
on either side, and to further his policy, he resolved to appoint new
governors for these provinces; and thus it was that Pedrarias, owing in
a great measure to his wife and to family influence, had obtained the
long desired lake region, even before the result of his residencia was
known; while Honduras was given as early as 1525[XXI-2] to Diego Lopez
de Salcedo, regardless of the great efforts and means expended by Cortés
in its colonization, wholly from his own resources.[XXI-3]
[Sidenote: SAAVEDRA AND SALCEDO.]
Salcedo was at this time residing in Española, and on receiving the
appointment, together with instructions to inquire into the late
trouble and punish the guilty, he at once prepared to set out. The
audiencia also took the instructions to heart, and, regarding Cortés
as implicated, they seized one of his ships at Santo Domingo, with its
cargo of merchandise.[XXI-4] Salcedo found the settlers at peace on
reaching Trujillo. Saavedra and Alcalde Figueroa set the example to the
other officials in doing reverence to the new ruler, who was solemnly
inaugurated on the 27th of October, 1526.[XXI-5] The first act under
the new régime was to make an investigation into the late political
disturbances, and the result was the arrest of Saavedra, regidores
Garnica and Vega, and two settlers named Martin Cortés and Morales, who
were placed on a vessel for transmission to the judges in Española.
Their safe-keeping was intrusted to Diego Morillo, who was installed
with a staff of justice, to give him greater authority. But the emblem
of the law failed to impose upon the prisoners, who were in this respect
hardly less imbued with the spirit of the times than Pedrarias and
his followers. They had too wholesome a fear of the quality of mercy
dispensed by the pompous rulers at Santo Domingo, and determined to make
an effort for liberty. The mainland had barely been lost to sight when
they appealed to the master's sympathy. Their argument was sufficiently
weighted to be convincing, and the shackles were not only transferred
to Morillo, but he was relieved of all his effects. The vessel's course
was thereupon changed to Cuba, where the mutineers dispersed in search
of wider spheres of operations.[XXI-6]
Shortly after Salcedo's installation the three envoys of Pedrarias
arrived at Trujillo. Finding a royal governor instead of the intruder
Saavedra, they did not venture to present their demands for the
submission of the province, but sought instead to regain Nicaragua and
warn their master. Salcedo had them arrested, however, as concerned
in the disorders in Nicaragua and Olancho, and turned the tables by
declaring Pedrarias an arraigned culprit, answerable to the residencia
judge at Panamá, and Nicaragua as falling within the jurisdiction of
Honduras, instead of pertaining to Castilla del Oro. He intended, in
fact, to take possession at once, and in this course he was encouraged
by petitions from the anti-Pedrarias faction of that province. The
limits of Salcedo's government had not been fixed, and what more natural
than to base on the claims of Cortés and Gonzalez the pleasing illusion
that Nicaragua must belong to his jurisdiction? An additional excuse was
to be found in the late political disturbances in that province, which
it behooved him as a royal officer to stop. The captive envoys should
accompany him as guides and hostages.
Preparations were soon concluded, and Salcedo departed with nearly one
hundred and fifty horsemen, leaving the small remnant at Trujillo under
command of Francisco de Cisneros.[XXI-7] He sent forward Alonso de
Solis, one of his captains, and a priest, with instructions to report
to him the condition of the Indians throughout the district; whether
they were friendly or otherwise; and what were their feelings in regard
to the Christian faith which they had previously professed to adopt.
Solis speedily came back with the information that bands of Spaniards
were prowling about the Olancho Valley. Salcedo advanced upon them, and
a skirmish ensued in which two men were lost. Suspecting that Albites
and his companions might be connected with this untoward check, he sent
them back to Trujillo with instructions for their immediate transmission
to Santo Domingo, on the charge of inciting native revolts and other
disorders. These charges were not sustained, however, and the prisoners
soon returned fully exonerated.
[Sidenote: WOES OF THE NATIVES.]
Still another check came to dampen the ardor of the party, and Treasurer
Castillo, among others, urged the abandonment of the expedition; but
the fair shores of the Freshwater Sea had taken too deep a hold upon
Salcedo's fancy, strewn as they were by rumor with much gold. No;
he knew his duty as royal officer, and would extend his beneficent
rule to this region. As for his losses and disappointments, he would
look to that universal source of redress, the natives. Caciques were
summoned to furnish Indians for carrying burdens and gathering food, and
soldiers went forth to enforce the order. A number of those suspected
of complicity in the disturbances at Natividad were hanged and others
enslaved, to be eventually sent out of the country and sold. Great were
their woes. Those who lost their relatives or near friends fled to the
mountains, preferring starvation and death to the cruel oppression of
the strangers. This feeling extended also to the district of Comayagua,
and created a distrust which was at once magnified into revolt. The
Spaniards immediately fell upon them, and a terrible havoc ensued. The
natives resorted to the passive retaliation of withdrawing supplies, and
even of destroying the crops, so as to leave the Spaniards without food,
and compel them to devour horses and dogs. This heightened the feeling
against them, and even the carriers were made to suffer so severely that
many threw off their loads and sought to escape, only to be overtaken
and slaughtered. The panic spread, and tribes distant from the scene
burned their villages and fields to seek refuge in the mountains, lest
they should be exposed to similar outrages on Salcedo's return.
In Nicaragua the rumor of these doings had impelled the natives to
assume a threatening attitude, so that when the Spanish party finally
arrived at the city of Leon they were hailed as saviors. This helped
to pave the way for Salcedo, and when he submitted his commission to
Martin Estete, the officer in charge, and to the municipal body, they
gave one glance at the sturdy forces by his side and then recognized it
as valid. The new governor was sworn in May 7, 1527. Once in undisputed
possession the humanity of Salcedo underwent a change. He would no
longer carry panic into native villages by means of raiding parties;
nay, he would even relieve the Indians from the oppression of their
present masters, the late subjects of Pedrarias, and place them under
the experienced control of his friends and followers. Without more ado
the choice repartimientos were transferred to the hands of himself and
his adherents, with not even an attempted excuse to the late holders.
Such high-handed proceedings created general dissatisfaction, not only
among the despoiled settlers but also among the enslaved, who were
regarded as cattle, and treated with a severity paralleled only by the
Honduras atrocities. More spirited, however, than the former victims,
they retaliated with sullen stubbornness, and refused to gather gold
or perform agricultural labor. The distress increased, and many could
not procure the common necessaries of life. The rupture between the
two races developed into open warfare, in which rights, grievances, and
passion often figured only as minor impulses by the side of the cravings
of hunger.[XXI-8]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: PEDRARIAS AND RIOS.]
To these distressing straits was the country reduced when a new claimant
to the government presented himself, in the person of Pedro de los
Rios. Invested with the same power and authority over Castilla del Oro
as his predecessor, he thought himself entitled to jurisdiction also
over Nicaragua, since it had been occupied and settled under the same
auspices. He had deferred his departure from Panamá till Pedrarias
should have been securely entangled in the meshes of his residencia,
and therefore unable to object. But the latter was desirous to see him
leave, in the hope that a change in his own favor might be effected,
perhaps by some friendly ingulfing wave, some devoted assassin, or
some native treachery; for the road was new and Rios inexperienced. As
a proof of his friendly interest in the project Pedrarias counselled
him to invest heavily in merchandise, which must pay a large profit.
Such advice was not to be disregarded, and, as circumstances would
have it, the gubernatorial trader was received with open arms by the
sorely pressed settlers of Nicaragua. But Rios had not the foresight
which characterized Fiscal Moreno's proceedings in Honduras, two years
before, and on presenting his claims to the supreme office the colonists
returned a cold stare. They saw nothing in his commission which
expressly included Nicaragua within Castilla del Oro, and although much
afflicted by the avaricious and oppressive measures of Salcedo, they
determined to support a governor whom they might call their own rather
than submit to one residing at such a distance, and evidently intent on
enriching himself and Panamá at their expense.
It is not improbable that the cause for the change lay partly with
Pedrarias, whose emissaries hoped by this means to embroil the new
aspirant with his proposed subjects. Salcedo was strong enough, however,
with his own troops to dictate terms to his rival, and he peremptorily
ordered him to leave the province within three days, under a penalty of
ten thousand pesos. Rios had too much respect for his portly person to
expose it to profane usage. Still he would have lingered had not the
threatened fine urged him away. As it was, in the flurry of departure
he even forgot his gout, with which he was just then severely stricken,
and his groans were not resumed till the vessel had turned prow for
Panamá. He carried one consolation, however, to soothe his ruffled
spirit; he had made these boorish colonists pay tenfold for his cargo
of merchandise. After all, the trip had not proved unprofitable, and
he laughed within himself at the thought. On his way back he stopped at
Brusélas, in the gulf of Nicoya, where a friendly reception was accorded
him. Informed of this, Salcedo with vindictive jealousy sent a troop of
sixty horse under Garabito to destroy the hospitable town.
The rankest despot could hardly deport himself with more capricious
severity than these petty upstart lieutenants in the Indies. Salcedo
was evidently a fitting successor to Pedrarias, as far as displaying
his jealousy, greed, and cruelty; but he lacked some of the commanding
characteristics which had so often enabled the latter to weather the
storm raised by his tyrannous impulses. His rule was to be brief and
ignoble. One of his last acts, which bore the relieving stamp of a
public measure, was to order Gabriel de Rojas to explore Rio San Juan,
the outlet of the lake, and to found there a settlement.
This order was disregarded, for just then came the rumor that Pedrarias
was about to return as governor. This sufficed to bring the general
dissatisfaction with Salcedo to an issue. At first he treated the news
as absurd; but, when the report came that Pedrarias was actually on
the way with a royal commission, he resolved to collect his scattered
followers and make his escape. The step was fatal, as it encouraged
the still wavering Estete with his friends to pronounce in favor of the
expected chief. The officials of Salcedo were arrested, which rendered
the executive powerless to act, and his horses were seized, so that
he might not escape a reckoning. So ominous became the demonstration
against the deposed governor, that he abandoned the building which
had hitherto given him shelter, and sought the protecting walls of the
church. There he remained, closely guarded by the rebels, till Pedrarias
arrived. Several persons had remonstrated with Estete with regard to
these arbitrary proceedings, based as they were on a mere report from
Panamá; but this officer, who had everything to gain by the movement if
the report proved true, declared that Pedrarias should be supported even
if he came without a royal Commission. In any case it would be suicidal
now to restore the relentless Salcedo to power.[XXI-9]
All doubts were solved by the arrival of the old governor at Leon in
March, 1528, and the timely turncoats were liberally rewarded; Estete
receiving the command of Leon, and Diego de Tejorina that of Granada.
Immediately on receipt of his appointment Pedrarias had hastened to
Nicaragua, leaving an agent at Panamá to finish his residencia, and to
collect the property and effects which had been attached. In connection
with the new government the king had appointed Licenciado Castañeda
alcalde mayor, and Diego de la Tobilla treasurer, both of whom arrived
eight months later.[XXI-10]
[Sidenote: IMPRISONMENT OF SALCEDO.]
Salcedo's case claimed the first attention of the new ruler, and
claims and charges began to pour in, the chief accusation being that he
had stationed spies to watch for the arrival of Pedrarias and native
assassins to despatch him. An investigation was ordered, to embrace
also the question whether Salcedo had royal authority for his entry into
the territory. The accused denied the charges, of course, and protested
that he had come merely to pacify the country, in accordance with his
instructions. He demanded liberty to depart for Honduras, where the
king required his presence as governor. Any other person might have felt
awed by a demand coupled so plausibly with the royal name, but Pedrarias
had too often mocked even the direct commands of his sovereign to care
for indirect requirements. He flaunted in the face of the accused the
royal order lately received forbidding him to meddle in Nicaraguan
affairs, and declared that since he had done so there was every prospect
for a residencia. The order for it might arrive at any moment, and he
must give bonds to answer the claims against him. The bonds not being
forthcoming he was placed under restraint, and on his attempting to
escape, close confinement was imposed.
Ten weary months Salcedo lay in durance. Finally Treasurer Tobilla
and Osorio, afterward bishop, intervened and brought about a peaceful
settlement. But the conditions extorted from him as the price of liberty
were so humiliating that shame and vexation preyed upon his mind, and
destroyed his health, already weakened by imprisonment. He was obliged
to renounce his claims to the south, and promise to confine himself
to a triangular section of territory bounded on the east and west by
Cape Gracias á Dios and Puerto de Caballos.[XXI-11] The three envoys
of Pedrarias, whom he had sent to Española to answer false charges,
and who had returned acquitted, were to be compensated, and he must
give security for twenty thousand pesos to appear in case a residencia
should be instituted against him. On Christmas eve, 1528, the prison
doors opened before him, and the once dashing Salcedo tottered forth,
pale and emaciated, weighed down with infirmities of body and mind, an
object of pity even to the down-trodden Indians. It had been a game of
rogue against rogue, and Pedrarias as usual was the winner. Salcedo felt
that he deserved little sympathy, either from the oppressed colonists
or from the cruelly treated natives, and within ten days he set out for
the shielding precincts of his own government.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: EXPLORATION OF THE RIVER SAN JUAN.]
Pedrarias had long before this taken steps to secure for himself the
large tracts of country which he intended to extort from his prisoner,
chiefly because they were reported to be rich in gold. For this there
were also additional motives. The report of mineral wealth in the
province had induced the king to inquire regarding the desirability
of erecting smelting works, and similar measures, and although the
avaricious old governor required no incentive to gold-hunting, yet the
communication was welcomed as a good pretence for his preparations.
The already projected expedition by Rojas to the river outlet of the
lake was therefore ordered to proceed, reinforced to more than one
hundred and fifty men, but the chief command was intrusted to Estete,
with instructions to explore the country, particularly for minerals, to
take possession for Pedrarias, and to found settlements on the river
and along the sea-shore, as desired by the king. On the river, where
it receives the waters of the lake, was formed the settlement of Nueva
Jaen, flushed at first with brilliant anticipations of a vast entrepôt
trade and a flourishing colony, but doomed to speedy abandonment.
From the mouth of the San Juan the party followed the coast northward,
blazing their way with branding-iron and sword, and finding good mines
at Cape Gracias á Dios, as rumored. There they established another
colony, of which Rojas was left in charge, while Estete returned to
Leon.
Their pathway thither had been stained sanguine by the most abominable
cruelty against the natives, in the form of wholesale enslavement and
wanton bloodshed, and this in face of the repeated and stringent orders
from the king for their good treatment.[XXI-12] Of what avail were
orders which suited not the taste of Master Pedrarias! On setting out
for Cape Gracias á Dios, Estete received from the chest, in which it
was kept under three locks by order of the crown, the branding-iron,
which was intended to be used only on rebels and criminals, and pursuing
his circuitous route, he captured and branded indiscriminately all
natives who fell into his hands, and sent them as slaves to Pedrarias
at Leon. Captives were secured by iron collars around the neck, chained
together in gangs, and forced to carry heavy burdens. When one fell from
exhaustion, in order to save time and trouble, his head was severed from
the body, and this released the collar so that the others might pass
on.[XXI-13]
This and other kidnapping expeditions, made chiefly in the interest of
Pedrarias, fairly glutted Leon and Granada with captives; but if they
could not be used here there was another means of utilizing them. The
native population of the Isthmus, as we have seen, had already been so
greatly reduced by the ever dripping sword, by the hardly less speedy
measures of relentless taskmasters, and by the flight of panic-stricken
border tribes, that the settlers found it difficult to fill the
constantly occurring gaps in their labor gangs. A slave market had
accordingly been opened at Panamá, where natives were sold by auction.
Its origin was with Pedrarias, and with a fatherly regard for his former
government he felt it a duty to sustain an institution so useful to the
colonists and so comforting to his coffers. A regular trade thereupon
sprang up in Indian slaves, and several ship-loads were taken down to
Panamá about this time by different persons.[XXI-14]
[Sidenote: DEPOPULATION.]
The supply of unfortunates was drawn not only from the outlying
districts, but from the very centre of the lake settlements, and their
capture assisted the sword and lash to no small extent in decimating the
population. When Gil Gonzalez first entered the country it was densely
populated, and the city of Managua alone contained forty thousand souls,
it was said. A few years of Spanish rule sufficed to turn whole tracts
of flourishing country into uninhabited wilds, leaving here and there
only small communities of terrorized natives groaning under extortionate
and cruel masters. On appealing to their idols they were assured that a
flood could be called forth, but in it would perish Indians as well as
Spaniards. Such was the comfort derived from their religion. Although
they had not courage enough to adopt this remedy, women widely formed
the resolution not to perpetuate a race foredoomed to slavery and cruel
death.
At first, when numbers still gave self-reliance, they ventured to renew
the hostilities which under Salcedo had led to such bloody results.
Soon after Estete's departure for Cape Gracias a general revolt broke
out. In the districts of Leon and Granada bloodshed was averted, but in
the interior the slaughter of natives was great, and if the Spaniards
lost comparatively few, the loss was increased by the horrors of
cannibalism.[XXI-15] Among the victims were Alonso Peralta, the royal
treasurer, an hidalgo named Zurita, and two brothers of the name of
Ballas, who in 1528 set out from the city of Leon to visit the Indians
that had been allotted to them respectively. None ever returned; all
were slain by their vassals. Pedrarias despatched a band of soldiers,
who captured eighteen caciques supposed to be implicated in the murders.
The Indians becoming daily more bold and troublesome a new method of
striking them with terror was invented. As in the introduction of
Christianity to the natives diplomacy was frequently made to take
the place of logic, so in war and punishment a refined cruelty, in
the exercise of which the aged Pedrarias Dávila stood unexcelled,
was deemed the most effectual means of pacification. The governor
of Leon determined on a grand spectacle, modelled somewhat after the
gladiatorial exhibitions of Rome. An inclosure was made in the public
square of the town, and on a fixed day the Indian chieftains were
brought forth. One of them was led into the arena and given a stout
stick or club with which to defend his life against the dogs to be
let loose. At first five or six young and inexperienced animals were
set upon him, which he could easily keep at bay with his stick. After
witnessing this sport until it grew tame, and just as the unfortunate
captive began to rejoice in the hope that through his skill and bravery
his life was saved, two fierce bloodhounds rushed in, seized him by
the throat, brought him to the ground, tore into shreds the flesh, and
devoured the entrails, assisted by the still yelping whelps. On the
authority of Oviedo, an eye-witness, this horrible scene was repeated
seventeen times. Pedrarias ordered the dead bodies to be left on the
ground as a warning to others, but soon the stench became insupportable,
and the Indians were allowed to remove them.[XXI-16]
* * * * *
Thus did the effort to open a transcontinental route by way of San Juan
not only fail, but it carried a host of evils with it, as we have seen.
Pedrarias was not content, however, to abandon to Panamá so fruitful a
project without another struggle, and since the strip of land between
Leon and Caballos was well suited for a road, he prepared to open one.
But orders came from the king forbidding the work. The Isthmus was
regarded as sufficient for present traffic, and it was also feared that
too many lives would be lost in constructing the new road.
[Sidenote: SALVADOR.]
One of the objects of Pedrarias in connection with the undertaking was
to secure possession of the western territory wrested from Salcedo,
and in this, at any rate, he resolved not to be defeated. Estete was
accordingly despatched northward with a strong force, accompanied by
Rojas. He was first to explore the northern lakes to determine their
outlet, and then to occupy the district between Golfo Dulce and the
South Sea, north of Fonseca Bay. This province, known as Salvador,
had already been conquered by Alvarado, the lieutenant of Cortés; but
Pedrarias knew that the settlers left in possession were not numerous,
and that the king would be more apt to favor the annexation of the
province to the adjoining small government of Nicaragua than to the
distant and too extensive New Spain. Besides, Honduras had claimed it,
and that claim was now his. Estete advanced into the heart of Salvador
and occupied the town there founded by Alvarado. Few as they were the
settlers refused to recognize the authority of the Nicaraguan governor,
and his lieutenant retired to the town of Perulapan, upon which he
bestowed the high-sounding title of Ciudad de los Caballeros, together
with a batch of officials who were to aid him in the congenial task of
oppression and enslavement. His sway was not of long duration, however,
for Jorge de Alvarado, then in charge of the Guatemalan government,
receiving notice of the intrusion, came down upon his settlement and
compelled him to evacuate the province in hot haste, with the loss of
half his force, which deserted to the enemy.[XXI-17]
Pedrarias' schemes for aggrandizement were evidently not succeeding
according to his desire, and he grieved at the thought of the many heavy
ducats lost on this last expedition. It was the more deplorable in view
of the failure to direct through Nicaragua the transcontinental traffic,
which would have yielded so rich a harvest for himself. But above all
hovered a deeper grief than any of these. Peru, with its glittering
wealth, was now dawning on the world, and none would have been more
dazzled by the sight than Pedrarias, had not the agonizing fact intruded
itself that he had been tricked out of these very treasures, or at least
a large share of them.
When the first expedition was organized for this conquest by Pizarro,
Almagro, and Luque, Pedrarias, then governor at Panamá, had stipulated
for a fourth interest, in return for which he bestowed the weighty sum
of his patronage. But the opening events proved to be less flattering
than he had expected, and when demands came for pecuniary aid toward
the enterprise, he shrank from the prospect, and allowed himself to be
bought off for the paltry consideration of one thousand pesos de oro.
Soon came glowing reports, however, and bitter were his denunciations of
the folly which had permitted so rich a prize to escape him; and deep
his feeling rankled against the late partners, whom he never ceased to
suspect of duplicity and of having beguiled him with misrepresentation.
While he was thus brooding, it happened that Nicolás de Ribera arrived
in Nicaragua, commissioned by the Peruvian conquerors to procure
reinforcements. He sought in particular to win for this purpose Hernando
de Soto, Hernan Ponce, and Francisco Compañon, all men of means, who
had two vessels on the stocks, nearly finished and available for the
voyage. By revolving before their eyes, in kaleidoscopic harmony, a
few specimens of the Inca's treasures, illustrated by tales no less
alluring, he secured the active sympathy not only of these men, but of
a crowd of beggared adherents.
[Sidenote: THE PERUVIAN ADVENTURE.]
Not least dazzled was Pedrarias. Indeed, he could not sleep for the
visions that crowded upon his brain. Finally the idea struck him that
he might here retrieve his folly by securing an interest in the vessels
and reinforcements, and obtain a fair proportion of that gold-enameled
region, perhaps the whole. Pizarro and Almagro had already prepared
the way, and it might even be his fortune to secure the results of
their victories. In order to lull the Peruvian emissaries he promised
to do everything to aid Pizarro and Luque; as for Almagro, he had been
deceived by him, and deceit his confiding nature could not endure.
He thereupon entered secretly into negotiation with the owners of
the vessels, but overreached himself by demanding the lion's share in
command as well as returns. Feeling himself in duty bound to spare his
own purse, he looked about for victims to furnish means, and bethought
himself of Ribera's vessel. An alguacil was sent to seize it, but Ribera
received timely warning and escaped, after prevailing on Ponce, Soto,
and their adherents, to sail away to Panamá and there arrange with
Pizarro for a liberal share in the conquest, leaving behind the foiled
Pedrarias.[XXI-18]
The governor's mortification was increased by local troubles, as might
be expected from his arbitrary rule and irascible temper, which had
now reached octogenarian crabbedness. A most distasteful feature had
been the arrival of Alcalde Mayor Francisco de Castañeda, appointed
by the king to take charge of the judicial affairs of the province.
This division of authority was intolerable, and, on the pretence that
disorders must result where different persons exercised judicial and
gubernatorial powers, he urged his friends in Spain to obtain for
him the privilege to appoint and remove at pleasure alcaldes mayores
and lieutenants. Meanwhile he made an effort to exercise this power,
alleging the possession of a royal cédula authorizing him to do so;
but Castañeda, who was not so easily imposed upon, challenged him to
produce the document, and this not being done, he added to his chagrin
by ignoring him.
There was little likelihood of any arbitrary powers being conferred on
the governor, for complaints of abuses were fast pouring in against
him, headed by the influential ayuntamiento of Leon. A grave charge
was peculation. When Rodrigo del Castillo surrendered his office to the
formally appointed treasurer he took the opportunity to inform the king
that large sums in gold had been taken from the Indians by Córdoba. All
this the governor had laid hands upon without any accounting therefor to
the crown. He had also managed to appropriate the confiscated estate of
Córdoba, and to defraud a host of others, besides perpetrating outrages
and cruelties of every description.[XXI-19]
[Sidenote: DEATH OF PEDRARIAS.]
In the midst of the brewing troubles, in the year 1530,[XXI-20] this
Timur of the Indies died at Leon, nearly ninety years of age. His body
was buried in the same church with his victim Hernandez de Córdoba, and
his spirit went to meet the spirit of Vasco Nuñez, and the spirits of
the hundreds of thousands of slaughtered savages whose benighted souls
he had sent on before.[XXI-21] Not that he quailed at the thought. By
this time his mind had become so fixed in some incomprehensible mould
of logic that there was no disturbing it. Further than this he knew he
could not escape the inevitable.
A disposition so ready to find solace is to be envied, the more so
since it forms a redeeming feature. No man is, for that matter, wholly
depraved, nor are any faultless. In the worst there is much that is
good; in the best much evil. And the difference between the best and the
worst is, in the eye of the Creator, much less than in the eye of the
creature. For a period of sixteen years, during the most important epoch
in the history of Darien, an irascible old man, cruel and vindictive,
plays a prominent part. His name is infamous, and so it deserves to be.
Some of his misdeeds may be attributed to inherent wickedness, others
to infirmities of temper; but many to peculiar conditions incident to
the colonization of a new country, and to the teachings of the times.
Spanish colonists of the sixteenth century, reared under the influences
of excessive loyalty, and suddenly withdrawn from the presence of
their august sovereign to distant parts, were like children for the
first time freed from the arbitrary rule of injudicious parents. While
the safeguards of society were removed, and free scope thus given to
passion, there yet remained their religious belief, the fruit of early
teachings. That strange fanaticism which blended avarice and deeds
diabolical with pretended zeal for the glory of God, not only permitted
but demanded blood and vengeance. Under the circumstances, therefore,
the wonder is, not that we find so much that is wicked in these Spanish
adventurers, but that men so taught and conditioned display so many
qualities noble and magnanimous. Farewell Pedrarias! Few there are who
came to these parts of whom so much of evil, so little of good, may be
truthfully said. And thou Death, almighty leveller! who by thy speedy
compensation has brought this rusty, crusty old man, these several
centuries, and for all the centuries time shall tell, to be no better
than Vasco Nuñez, than Córdoba, than the meanest of the multitude of
savages he has vilely slain, we praise thee![XXI-22]