Castilla del Oro en la Tierre Firme,' write the chroniclers;
but in his instructions the king says, _Navarrete_, _Col.
de Viages_, iii. 343, 'é agora la mandamos llamar _Castilla
Aurifia_.' Oviedo, iii. 4, gives Pedrarias a broad domain,
from Cape de la Vela to Veragua, and from ocean to ocean;
'señalándole por gobernaçion desde el Cabo de la Vela hasta
Veragua, y desde estos limites, que son en la costa del Norte,
corriendo la tierra adentro háçia la parte austral, todo
aquello que oviesse de mar á mar, con las islas que en ello
concurriessen.'
[X-3] 'Caicedo and Colmenares reached Spain in May, 1513; the
date of Pedrarias' appointment is July 27, 1513, so that it
is very probable, especially since Enciso and his complaints
reached the court of Spain before these deputies, that the
appointment of a governor was settled before they arrived.'
_Helps' Span. Conq._, i. 373. See _Título de Capitan general
y Gobernador de la provincia del Castilla del Oro en el
Darien, expedido por el Rey-Católico á Pedrarias Dávila_, in
_Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, iii. 337.
[X-4] The Licenciado Zuazo, in a letter to M. De Xevres,
_Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, i. 304-32, places the
cost of the outfit at 40,000 ducats; Las Casas, _Hist. Ind._,
iv. 138, at 54,000 ducats; 'y lo que en aquel tiempo se hizo
y suplió con 54,000 ducados es cierto que hoy no se supliera
con 158,000 castellanos.' Balboa in his letter to the king,
16th October, 1515, implies that the cost was 40,000 pesos de
oro. _Navarrete_, iii. 377.
[X-5] Herrera, i. x. vii., and Pascual de Andagoya, _Relacion
de los sucesos de Pedrarias Dávila_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de
Viages_, iii. 393, say 1,500 men and nineteen ships; Gomara,
_Hist. Ind._, 84, seventeen ships; Galvano, _Discov._, 125,
seven ships. Peter Martyr, iii. v., places the number of
ships at seventeen, with 1,200 men assigned; but affirms that
surreptitiously or otherwise 1,500 sailed, and 2,000 remained
behind pensive and sighing who gladly would have gone at their
own cost. Oviedo, who, one would think, should know, as he was
of the number, testifies in one place, iii. 22, to twenty-two,
'naos é carabelas,' and 2,000 men, and in another place, iv.
473, to seventeen or eighteen.
[X-6] Icazbalceta, in _Dic. Univ._, i. 429, says that she was
cousin-german to the marchioness, who was a great favorite
with Queen Isabella.
[X-7] Appointed to succeed Juan de Caicedo 'que iba proveido
en el oficio de Veedor de las fundiciones del oro de la
Tierra Firme.' _José Amador de los Rios_, _Vida de Oviedo_,
in _Oviedo_, i. xxii. Caicedo died in Seville before sailing.
The duties of the office were to assay and stamp the gold and
take charge of the king's fifth. Oviedo was also _escribano
general_ or chief notary of Tierra Firme.
[X-8] Or as Oviedo, iii. 22, has it, 'con título de obispo de
Sancta Maria de la Antigua é de Castilla del Oro.'
[X-9] Gonzalo Fernandez writing from Santo Domingo the 25th
of October, 1537, to the Council of the Indies, _Pacheco_
and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, i. 522-9, says that this order
proved inoperative, 'pues que los que lo habian de ejecutar
lo disimulaban,' since those who should have executed it
dissembled. For a time, however, no lawyer was allowed to
plead in the Indies, the alcalde mayor speaking on both sides,
and finally deciding according to the evidence; 'sentenciaba
por aquel por quien en el pleito habia mejor hablado.'
[X-10] _Instruccion dada por el Rey á Pedrarias Dávila para su
viage á la provincia de Castilla del Oro, que iba á poblar y
pacificar con la gente que llevaba_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de
Viages_, iii. 342-55; _Las Casas_, _Hist. Gen._, iv. 139-42;
_Herrera_, ii. i. xiii.
[X-11] Helps, _Span. Conq._, i. 385, and Irving, iii. 230,
say 12th April. Robertson, _Hist. Am._, i. 207, stigmatizes
Ferdinand for elevating Pedrarias, and abasing Vasco Nuñez;
in which the learned historian is wholly wrong. We who know
the merits of Vasco Nuñez may be disposed to excuse his
faults, but the king could not do otherwise, from a ruler's
standpoint, than depose the unknown adventurer guilty of
unlawful excesses.
[X-12] Five or six months later Pedrarias instituted formal
proceedings to prove his insubordination. The people murmured
against that hasty justice, and attributed it to some former
displeasure of the governor against the man. _Oviedo_, iii.
25. Part of the vessels returned to Spain; several of the old
and worm-eaten were sunk in Urabá Gulf; one foundered at sea,
on the voyage back, the crew escaping to Española. _Oviedo_,
iv. 471-3; _Herrera_, ii. i. vii.; _Andagoya's Nar._, 1-3;
_Ramusio_, _Viaggi_, iii. 208.
[X-13] It was a desperate game Vasco Nuñez had been playing;
and although success up to this time had been varied, it was
sure in the end to be against him. According to the Licenciado
Zuazo, _al muy ilustre señor Monsieur de Xevres_, in _Pacheco_
and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, i. 312-13, Pasamonte was guilty
of double-dealing, now receiving Balboa's presents and writing
the king in his favor, and at another time seconding the
persistent efforts of Enciso against him.
[X-14] _Capitulo de casta escrita por el Rey-Católico
á Pedrarias Dávila, sobre los medios de facilitar la
comunicacion entre la costa del Darien y la mar del sur, y que
para continuar en él los descubrimientos se hagan alli tres
ó cuatro carabelas_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, iii.
355-7.
[X-15] _Carta de Vasco Nuñez_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de
Viages_, iii. 375. Oviedo enumerates the following chiefs with
whom Balboa had made peace: Careta, Ponca, Careca, Chiapes,
Cuquera, Juanaga, Bonanimana, Tecra, Comagre, Pocorosa,
Buquebuca, Chuyrica, Otoque, Chorita, Pacra, Thenoca,
Tubanamá, Teaoca, Tamaca, Tamao and others. The Licenciado
Zuazo says, _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, i. 315,
that Vasco Nuñez with his judicious policy had won over about
thirty caciques.
[X-16] From the most high and mighty Catholic defender of the
Church, always triumphant and never vanquished, the great King
Don Fernando, the fifth of that name, King of the Spains, of
the two Sicilies, and of Jerusalem, and of the Indies, isles
and firm land of the ocean sea, tamer of barbarous peoples;
and from the very high and puissant lady, the Queen Doña
Juana, his dearest and most beloved daughter, our sovereigns;
I, Pedrarias Dávila, their servant, messenger, and captain,
notify and make known to you as best I can, that God, our
Lord, one and triune, created the heavens and the earth, and
one man and one woman, from whom you and we and all mankind
were and are descended and procreated, and all those who
shall come after us. But from the multitudes issuing out of
that generation during the five thousand and more years since
the world was made, it became necessary that some should go
one way and some another, dispersing over many kingdoms and
provinces, as in one alone they could not sustain nor preserve
themselves.
All these peoples God, our Lord, gave in charge to one
person, called Saint Peter, that he should be prince, lord,
and superior over all men in the world, whom all should obey,
and that he should be the head of all the human lineage,
wheresoever man might live or be, and of whatever law, sect,
or belief; and to him is given the whole world for his kingdom
and lordship and jurisdiction. And although he was ordered to
place his chair in Rome, as the most suitable spot whence to
rule the world, yet was he also permitted to be and place his
chair in any other part of the world, and judge and govern
all peoples, Christians, and Moors, and Jews, and Gentiles,
of whatever sect or belief they might be. And him they called
Pope, that is to say, Admirable, Supreme, Father, and Keeper,
because he is father and keeper of all men. And this Saint
Peter was obeyed and held in reverence as lord, and king,
supreme in the universe, by those who lived in that time,
likewise others who after him were elected to the pontificate
were so esteemed, and so it has continued until now and will
continue to the end of the world.
One of the pontiffs who succeeded as prince and lord of the
world, to the chair and dignity aforesaid, made a donation of
these isles and firm land of the ocean sea to the said King
and Queen, our sovereigns, and to their successors, with all
therein contained, as it appears in certain writings made
therefor, which you can see if desirable. So that by virtue
of said donation their highnesses are kings and lords of
these isles and firm land, and as such have been recognized,
and obeyed, and served by the inhabitants of almost all the
islands to whom notification has been made, who still obey
and serve them as subjects should; and of their free will,
without resistance, immediately, without delay, as soon as
informed of the aforesaid, they obeyed and recognized the
learned men and friars who were sent by their highnesses to
preach and teach our holy Catholic faith; doing this of their
free and spontaneous will, without pressure or condition of
any kind; and they became Christians and are now, and their
highnesses received them gladly and benignantly, and ordered
that they should be treated in every respect as their own
subjects and vassals; and you are held and obliged to do
likewise. Therefore, as best I may, I pray and require you
well to understand what I have told you; to take the time
which may be necessary to comprehend it and to deliberate
upon it; and to recognize the Church as Supreme Mistress of
the Universe, and the Supreme Pontiff, called Pope, and the
King and Queen in his place as monarchs and supreme sovereigns
of these isles and firm land, by virtue of the donation
aforesaid, and to consent and allow these religious fathers
to explain and preach to you as aforesaid. If thus you do,
you will do well, and do that which you are held and bound to
do, and their highnesses, and I in their name, will receive
you with all love and charity; and your wives, and children,
and property will be freely left to you without lien, that
you may do with them and with yourselves, whatever you may
please. You will not be compelled to turn Christians, except
when informed of the truth you desire to be converted to our
holy Catholic faith, like almost all the inhabitants of the
other isles. And besides this their highnesses will grant you
many privileges and exemptions, and do you many favors. But if
you do not thus, or maliciously delay to do it, I certify to
you that with the help of God I will invade your lands with
a powerful force, and will make war upon you in all parts,
and in every manner in my power, and will subject you to the
yoke and obedience of the Church and their highnesses; and I
will take your persons, and those of your wives and children,
and will make them slaves, and as such will sell them and
dispose of them as their highnesses shall order; and I will
take your property, and I will do you all possible harm and
evil, as to vassals who do not obey or recognize their lord,
but who resist and oppose him. And I protest that the deaths
and damage which from such conduct may result will be at your
charge and not at that of their highnesses, nor at mine, nor
at that of the gentlemen who come with me. And now to that
which I have said I require the notary here present to give
me a certificate. Episcopus Palentinus, comes; F. Bernardus,
Trinopolitanus episcopus; F. Thomas de Matienzo; F. Al.
Bustillo, magister; Licenciatus de Sanctiago; El Doctor
Palacios Rubios; Licenciatus de Sosa; Gregorius, licenciatus.
The original in _Oviedo_, iii. 28-9. To the astute Enciso
belongs the honor of first reading this _requerimiento_ to the
savages in America. The place was the port of Cenú; and when
the lawyer had finished, the chief, whose name was Catarapa,
and his people laughed at him; these benighted barbarians
laughed at the learned bachiller, and said that the Pope must
have been drunk when he did it, for he was giving what was not
his; and that the King who asked and took such a grant must be
a crazy one, since he asked for what was another's. 'Dixeron
q̃ el papa deuiera estar borracho quãdo lo hizo; pues daualo
q̃ no era suyo, y q̃ el rey q̃ pedia & tomaua tal merced
deuia ser algun loco pues pedia lo que era & de otros.' _Enciso_,
_Suma de Geografia_, 56. A copy of this precious document was
filed in the _Casa de Contratacion_, at Seville. _Memorial
que dió el bachiller Enciso_, in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_,
_Col. Doc._, i. 442-7. Herrera, i. vii. xiv., gives the text
of the _requerimiento_ made for Ojeda and others in 1508.
See also _Real Cédula_, in _Doc. Inéd._, i. 111-2; _Zamora
y Coronado_, _Bib. Leg. Ult._, iii. 21-31; _Juan y Ulloa_,
_Voy._, i. 114-20; _Acosta_, _Hist. Compend. Nueva Granada_,
23-6, where is also given the text of Nicuesa's requisition;
_Las Casas_, _Hist. Ind._, iv. 154-6; _Helps' Span. Conq._, i.
242; _Carta dirigida al Rey por Vasco Nuñez_, in _Navarrete_,
_Col. de Viages_, iii. 375-86.
[X-17] I follow the _Novus Orbis_ of De Laet, who places
Pocorosa and S. X. (Santa Cruz) north and west of Comagre;
although Oviedo, iii. 37, says, 'el puerto de Sancta Cruz que
es en tierra del caçique Comogre.' It is often impossible to
reconcile the self-contradictions of a writer, to say nothing
of the conflicting statements of the several chroniclers.
Oviedo usually places the native towns and provinces where
most convenient for his narrative.
[X-18] I do not know that it is necessary here to catalogue
Ayora's crimes. One which the Licenciado Zuazo mentions,
_Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, i. 315-16, if
sufficiently pluralized, will answer for all. Met one day, on
approaching a village, by natives bearing presents of venison,
fowl and fish, wine and maize, who thought the white tiba to
be their friend, Vasco Nuñez, Ayora seized the cacique and his
chief men, tortured them with fire and dogs until all their
gold was given up, and then burned them alive. 'This infernal
hunt lasted several months,' says Oviedo.
[X-19] 'Los quales luego fueron vendidos en almoneda é
herrados, é los mas dellos se sacaron de la tierra por mar,
é los llevaron á otras partes.' _Oviedo_, iii. 39. 'Poi mandò
ancora lui altri Capitani per quella Costa, come fu Bartolomeo
Vrtado in Achla, e saltato in terra, sotto colore di pace,
pigliò tutti gl'Indiani, che potè, e gli vendè per ischiaui.'
_Benzoni_, _Hist. Nvovo Mondo_, 49.
[X-20] _Carta al Rey_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, iii.
376. Oviedo states that Pedrarias sent a ship after Ayora
to Santo Domingo, but before it reached that port Ayora had
sailed for Spain, where, soon afterward, he died, leaving the
bishop, the alcalde mayor, and the governor responsible for
his crimes. Even if this were true, these functionaries may
have winked at Ayora's escape.
[X-21] Theodore de Bry and Benzoni give graphic engravings
of the cutting and roasting and eating of Spaniards. Says
the latter, 'Quegli, che pigliauano vini, spetialmente il
Capitani, legategli le mani e i piedi, gettatigli in terra,
colauano loro dell'oro in bocca, dicendo, mangia, mangia
oro Cristiano.' _Hist. Nvovo Mondo_, 49. Nor has Las Casas
failed to improve the subject, as may be seen in the curious
illustrations and extreme denunciations of his _Regionvm
Indicarum devastatorum_, 18-22 et seq.
[X-22] _Herrera_, ii. i. ii.; _Peter Martyr_, iii. 6. Oviedo,
iii. 46, asserts that Panciaco joined Pocorosa in the attack
on Santa Cruz, and that not a single Spaniard escaped.
Andagoya, in _Nar._, 12, says that all were killed save one
woman, whom Pocorosa kept several years as his wife. She
was finally killed through jealousy by an Indian woman who
reported her to have been eaten by a crocodile while bathing.
[X-23] Oviedo calls this place Tamao.
[X-24] This was the site of old Panamá. Aboriginally fish in
large quantities were dried there. 'Que es provincia adonde
los ayres son buenos quando vienen dela mar,' says Herrera,
ii. ii. x., 'y malos quando procedẽ de tierra.' In _Purchas_,
_His Pilgrimes_, iv. 883, is written, 'It might haue had
a better seate, and more wholesome, and to the purpose for
the trafficke of the South Sea, not going very farre from
whence the Citie now stands.' See _Juan_ and _Ulloa_, _Voy._,
i. 99; _Heylyn's Cosmog._, 1085; _Lloyd_, in _London Geog.
Soc., Jour._, i. 85; _Findlay's Direct._, i. 213; _Griswold's
Panama_, 11; _Viagero Univ._, xii. 303-30; _Andagoya's Nar._,
23. Ambiguously Gomara writes, _Hist. Ind._, 254, 'Deste golfo
a Panama ay mas de cinquenta, que descubrio Gaspar de Morales
Capitan de Pedrarias de Auila.' Still more indefinite is
Benzoni, _Hist. Mondo Nvovo_, 81, 'Questa prouincia di Panama
soleua essere habitata da molti popoli Indiani, e per tutti
quei siu mi v'era abbondanza d'oro; ma gli Spagnuoli hanno
consumato ogni cosa.'
[X-25] It may be the same as Poncra; from the authorities it
is impossible with certainty to determine.
[X-26] Peter Martyr speaks of four attempts to gain the golden
temple. The first attained a distance up the river of forty
leagues, the second of fifty leagues, and the third of eighty
leagues. Again they crossed the river and proceeded by land,
'but oh! wonderful mischance, the unarmed and naked people
always overcame the armed and armored.' Jacobo Álvarez Osorio,
a friar of the priory of Darien, spent many years in search
of the province of Dabaiba.
[X-27] Balboa says eighty. _Carta_, in _Pacheco_ and
_Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, ii. 530.
[X-28] Gomara, _Hist. Ind._, 84, gives the island or the
chieftain yet another name, 'y diose buena maña en la ysla
de Terarequi a rescatar perlas.' Oviedo, iii. 16, calls the
island Toe.
[X-29] Writing the king, Vasco Nuñez tells the tale somewhat
differently. 'No sooner had they arrived at Isla Rica,' he
says, 'than entering a village they captured all the Indians
they could. The cacique prepared for war, but retired for
several days, during which time the Christians burned half
the houses with all the provisions. Afterward the cacique
peaceably returned with fifteen or sixteen marks of pearls
and four thousand pesos in gold. Then he took the Spaniards
to the place where they obtained the pearls, and made his
people gather them, and remain at peace. Notwithstanding all
this the captain without conscience gave away as slaves all
the men and all the women whom he brought away from the Rich
Island.' The statement may be taken with allowance as from
a man smarting under wrong; and it is not a little amusing
to see how suddenly tender becomes the conscience of the
ingenuous Vasco, who never stole anything from the natives,
or burned their houses, or made them slaves!
[X-30] Erroneously supposed by some to be the origin of the
word Peru.
[X-31] Some of the pearls were of extraordinary size and
beauty. One, in particular, attained no small celebrity.
It was pear-shaped, one inch in length, and nine lines in
its largest diameter. Vasco Nuñez describes it as weighing
'ten tomines'—a _tomin_ is about one third of a drachm—'very
perfect, without a scratch or stain and of a very pretty color
and lustre and make; which, in truth,' artlessly intimating
what would be his course under the circumstances, 'is a jewel
well worthy of presentation to your Majesty, more particularly
as coming from these parts. It was put up at auction and
sold for 1,200 pesos de oro to a merchant, and finally fell
into the hands of the governor.' Oviedo, iii. 49, says it
weighed 31 carats. Subsequently it was presented through
Doña Isabel to the queen, and was valued in Spain at 4,000
ducats. Pedrarias is further charged with divers misdemeanors.
_Carta del Adelantado Vasco Nuñez de Balboa_, October 16,
1515, in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, ii. 526, and
_Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, iii. 375; _Ovalle_, _Hist. Rel.
Chile_, in _Pinkerton's Voy._, xiv. 146-7.
[XI-1] Peter Martyr, dec. iii. cap. x., says he set out in May
with 80 men, and was afterward joined by Mercado with 50 men.
[XI-2] On Mercator's atlas there is a town and river
south-west from Panamá named _Nata_. Hondius, Dampier,
Jefferys, and De Laet give _Nata_; _West-Indische Spieghel_,
_Nato_; _Kiepert_, _Nata de los Caballeros_, and thence
eastward, _R. Aguablanca_, and opposite this river, _I Chiru_.
[XI-3] Nearly all the gold found here was wrought into plates
and various kinds of utensils.
[XI-4] It is groundless speculation on the part of Herrera
to find in this word, as many do in others, the origin of
the term Peru. 'Y prosiguiendo su descubrimiento hàzia el
Ocidente, llegaron a la tierra del Cazique dicho Birùquete,
de quien se dize que ha deriuado el nombre de Piru.' _Hist.
Ind._, ii. i. xiv.
[XI-5] Paris was an Indian province and gulf twelve leagues
from Natá. Oviedo authorizes us to write, _Pariza_ or
_Parita_. The large square peninsula which forms the western
bound to the gulf of Panamá, is sometimes called by modern
writers _Parita_, and the gulf which cuts into the peninsula
_Gulfo de Parita_. See Humboldt's _Atlas of New Spain_.
Ribero gives _G. de Paris_, Vaz Dourado, _G∴ de Paris naca_
and _b∴ de Paris naqua_; De Laet, _Golfo de Parita_, as well
as the city Parita, south of which is _Iubraua_, and north,
_Escoria_.
[XI-6] Town and province, beside being the name of the first
prominent point west of Panamá. Colon and Ribero have it, _p
de Chame_; Vaz Dourado writes it the same once, and again,
_p∴ de Cane_; Colom gives _P de Chane_; De Laet, and others
after him, _Chame_, with _Otoque_ east of it.
[XI-7] 'Donde despues Pedrarias pobló un pueblo de cristianos
que se dice Acla, y antes que hobiese esta batalla tenia otro
nombre, porque Acla en la lengua de aquella tierra quiere
decir huesos de hombres ó canillas de hombres.' _Andagoya_,
_Relacion_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, iii. 397.
See also _Carta de Alonso de la Puente y Diego Marquez_, in
_Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, ii. 538-49; Robert
FitzRoy, in _London Geog. Soc., Jour._, xxiii. 179, gives
us a fair specimen of historical writing by an intelligent
gentleman, who knows nothing of what he is saying when he
describes 'Acla, or Agla,' as settled 'in 1514, a few miles
inland from that port or bay now famed in history and romance,
called by Patterson Caledonian Harbour.' Acla was on the
coast, three or four leagues north of Caledonian Bay, as we
find in _Purchas_, _His Pilgrimes_, iv. 883, 'right against
the Iland of _Pinos_, whereof at this present there is no more
memory than that there was the death of that famous Captaine,
whose name will last eternally, the President _Basco Nunnez_
of _Balnoa_, and of his company.' Fernando Colon, 1527, calls
the town _ocara_; Diego de Ribero, _acra_; Vaz Dourado, 1571,
_Munich Atlas_, No. x., _axca_, and on No. xi., _azca_; De
Laet, Colom, and others, _Acla_.
[XI-8] _Relacion hecha por Gaspar de Espinosa, alcalde mayor
de Castilla del Oro, dada á Pedrarias de Avila, lugar teniente
general de aquellas provincias, de todo lo que le sucedió
en la entrada que hizo en ellas, de órden de Pedrarias_,
in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, ii. 467-522. The
licentiate begins his verbose narrative with a flourish of
trumpets before the king and queen, in a lengthy saying of
Quintilian, and an apology, saying that had he sufficient
time he would give the particulars of his raid. The document
is signed, El Licenciado Espinosa; Gerónimo Valenzuela; Pablo
Mexia; Pedro de Gamez; Bartolomé Hurtado, capitan; Gabriel
de Roxas; Por su mandado, Martin Salcedo. The editors of the
collection in which the paper appears complain of its errors
in regard to places, which they have endeavored to rectify
whenever possible. The truth of its incidents they of course
could not dispute.
[XI-9] Probably the Rio Chepo, or Bayano.
[XI-10] The licentiate's narrative here becomes as confused
as his sense of justice. The names of towns, provinces, and
chiefs are now brought together and then scattered as if flung
at random from the hand, making it in no wise difficult to
imagine either that the licentiate never made the journey,
or that he did not write the relation. There is no doubt,
however, on either of these points. There is this to say;
language was not then what it is now, and there were men who
knew how best to use it even in those days.
[XI-11] Named by Espinosa, Puerto de las Agujas.
[XI-12] Colon and Ribero both write _ya de Cebaco_; Mercator
places a town on the mainland opposite, _Sebaco_; Ogilby, _I. de
S. Maria_; De Laet, _Isles del Zebaco_; Colom and Jefferys,
_Zebaco_; Kiepert, _I. Cebaco_, and near it _I. del Gobernador_.
[XI-13] If Coiba was meant we find connected the ancient
name of _Gatos_, _ya gatos_, _y de gatos_, etc. Then the
name changes, and we have by Vaz Dourado _I∴ de quofõque_;
Mercator, _Quicare_; Dampier, _Keys of Quicara_ or _Quibo_;
I. de Laet gives, _Cobaya_, _Quicaro_, and _La Montuosa_;
Colom, _Coyba_, _Quicaro_, and _Lamatuosa_; Jefferys, _Coyba_,
_Quicaro_, and opposite Coiba, _Pt. Bianco_, and west _Coco_,
and _Honda_. Herrera calls the island _Cobayos_.
[XI-14] Not so called at the time, however. According to
Herrera the native name was Chira. The gulf was first known
to civilization as San Lúcar, and San Lázaro; before this,
even, we have by Colon, _G. de S. Vicenite_. Vaz Dourado
gives _Sao llucar_; Mercator, in 1574, places in the interior
the town _Nicoia_, and on the eastern shore of the gulf the
town _Pari_. Ogilby gives on the _Golfo de Salinas_, as well
as on the land, perhaps town and province, _Nicoya_, and a
little to the west, _Paro_. Dampier gives _G. of Nicoya_, and
the town of _nicoya_. De Laet locates the town of _Nicoya_,
east of which is _Paro_. _West-Indische Spieghel_, _G. Goca_;
and Jefferys, _Nicova_, and near it emptying into the gulf,
_R. Dispensa_, _R. Taminsco_, _R. de Costarica_, _R. de las
Canas_, and _R. Solano_.
[XI-15] Called the bay of _Osa_ by Herrera; _baia de oqua_ by
Vaz Dourado; _Munich Atlas_, no. xi., b∴ _deoqua_; De Laet,
_Golfo de Salinas_; and by Dampier, and Jefferys, _G. Dulce_,
and _Gulfe Dulce_.
[XI-16] With singular fidelity to its original, this name has
retained its proper orthography without regard to time or
place. The chart-makers of every name and nation give only
_Panamá_. Fernando Colon applies the word as to a province,
but usually it is given as to a town. Dampier gives the _Bay
of Panama_ as well as the city. De Laet sends flowing into
this bay _R. Chiepo_, _R. Pacora_, _R. Tubanama_, _R. de la
balsa_, while to the north are _R. Pequi_, _Venta de Cruzes_,
and _Limaret_.
[XI-17] Herrera, dec. ii. lib. ii. cap. x., places Ponce
at Panamá in 1516. Although the chronicles and relations
are all exceedingly confused, yet I am satisfied that the
establishment of a post at Panamá was not effected before
January, 1517, since Espinosa was hunting for Paris in
January, during the absence of Hurtado and Ponce upon the
coast toward the north-west.
[XII-1] Authorities thus far for this chapter are for the
most part the same as those last quoted. _Las Casas_, _Hist.
Ind._, iv. 169-248, who, I think, gives the best account of
any by contemporary writers; _Herrera_, dec. ii. lib. i. cap.
iii.; _Oviedo_, iii. 6-8; _Peter Martyr_, dec. iii. cap. iii.
and dec. iv. cap. ix.; _Benzoni_, _Hist. Mondo Nvovo_, 50.
For Balboa's complaints to the king, see _Carta dirigida al
Rey_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, iii. 375. Brief or
extended general accounts may be found in _Voyages, Curious
and Entertaining_, 470-1; _Panamá, Descr._, in _Pacheco_
and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, ix. 80; _Morelli_, _Fasti Novi
Orbis_, 16; _Andagoya's Nar._, ii.-iii.; _Galvano's Discov._,
125-8; _Ovalle_, _Hist. Rel. Chile_, in _Pinkerton's Voy._,
xiv. 151; _Acosta_, _Hist. Compend. Nuevo Granada_, 62; _March
y Labores_, _Marina Española_, i. 400, portrait; _Du Perier_,
_Gen. Hist. Voy._, 166; _Martire_, _Summario_, in _Ramusio_,
_Viaggi_, iii. 349; _Dic. Enc. de la Lengua Esp._, i. 308;
_Carta_, in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, iii. 526;
_Puente_, _Carta_, in _id._, 538-49; _Maglianos_, _St. Francis
and Franciscans_, 537-8; _Pedrarias_, _Reys-Togten_, 3-175,
and _Cordua_, _Scheeps-Togt_, 26-35, in _Aa_, vii.; _Hesperian
Mag._, ii. 32-3; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, 83-5; _Irving's
Columbus_, iii. 232-86; _Uitvoerige Reys-Togten_, 33-50, in
_Gottfried_, _Reysen_, iii.; _Remesal_, _Hist. Chyapa_, 163;
_Gonzalez Dávila_, _Carta al Rey_, _Squier's MS._, i. 16.
[XII-2] 'La llegada del obispo á Castilla no se verificó
hasta en 1518; y por cierto que no guardó aquí á su amigo los
respetos y consecuencia que le debia. En su disputa con Casas
delante del emperador aseguró que el primer gobernador del
Darien habia sido malo, y el segundo muy peor.' _Quintana_,
_Vidas_, 'Balboa,' 35. In the matter of definite dates for the
events of this chapter, authorities differ. All are more or
less vague. Most of them end the career of Vasco Nuñez with
the end of 1517; which, if correct, would fix the time of his
departure from Antigua about May, 1516, for in his agreement
with Pedrarias it was arranged that the time of absence on the
South Sea expedition should be limited to eighteen months, and
one of the principal charges of the governor was that Balboa
had failed in this. Among the collection of documents in the
royal archives of the Indies appears a petition presented by
Fernando de Argüello to Pedrarias and his council, in behalf
of Vasco Nuñez, requesting an extension of the time. At the
foot of the petition is a decree, dated January 13, 1518,
granting an extension of four months. Either the document is
fictitious, or its date erroneous, or contemporary writers
are in error. I am quite sure that Pedrarias never gave any
extension, since the authorities are clear and positive on
that point, and the incidents of the narrative hinge upon it.
Compare copy of this document in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_,
_Col. Doc._, ii. 556-8; _Carta de Alonso de la Puente y
Diego de Marquez_, in _id._, 538-49; Moreri and Miravel y
Casadevante in _El Gran. Dic._; _Burney's Discov. South Sea_,
i. 12; _Naharro_, _Relacion_, in _Doc. Inéd. para Hist. Esp._,
xxvi. 232. As to the date of Quevedo's leaving Darien and his
arrival in Spain there are grave differences. Herrera sends
the bishop to Spain in 1518, to report the misgovernment of
Pedrarias. Oviedo states that Quevedo left Darien soon after
the reconciliation of Vasco Nuñez and Pedrarias, and yet does
not speak of his being in Spain until 1519, 'era llegado.' It
is known that Quevedo spent some time in Cuba, urging Diego
Velazquez to apply for the governorship of Castilla del Oro.
The petition of Argüello for the extension of the time of
absence of Vasco Nuñez, before mentioned, contains the name of
Quevedo as one of those who acted upon it, which only the more
conclusively proves that document fictitious. Stranger than
all this, however, is the statement in the royal cédula, dated
June 18, 1519, ordering the ships of Balboa to be delivered
to Gil Gonzalez, that Vasco Nuñez was then a prisoner. So
singular is this culpable ignorance, or carelessness, or
deception, regarding the death of Vasco Nuñez, on the part
of the royal officials, as at first to raise grave doubts
regarding the date of his death, were it not proved by many
collateral incidents.
[XII-3] There are several streams of this name between the
Atrato and the Colorado, but none of them suit the occasion.
Modern maps give a Rio Balsas flowing into the gulf of San
Miguel from the south, its source turned the farthest possible
away from Acla. On a map of Joannis de Laet, 1633, _Nov.
Orb._, 347, midway between the gulf of San Miguel and Panamá,
are the words _R de la balsa_. They are placed opposite Acla;
the mouth of a river only is given, the stream not being
laid down. The same may be said of the _R. de la balse_ of
Montanus, _Nieuwe Weereld_, 1671, which is in about the same
locality. The Rio Chepo is the only stream approaching the
description in that vicinity. In my opinion both of these
map-makers were wrong; neither the Rio Chepo nor any other
stream in that neighborhood was the Rio Balsas of Vasco Nuñez.
The head-waters of the Rio Chucunaque are nearer the old site
of Acla than those of the Rio Chepo, or of any other southward
flowing stream; and yet I do not think the Chucunaque the
Balsas of Vasco Nuñez. Says Pascual de Andagoya, _Navarrete_,
_Col. de Viages_, iii. 404, 'Le envió á la provincia de Acla á
poblar un pueblo, que es el que agora está que se dice Acla, y
de allí le dió gente que fuese al rio de la Balsa, y hiciese
dos navíos para bajar por él á la mar del sur ... y bajados
al golfo de S. Miguel se anegaban,' etc.; from which, and
from the objects and incidents of the enterprise, as given
by various authors, I am inclined to believe the Rio de las
Balsas of Vasco Nuñez to be the stream now known as the Rio
Sabana. The fact of distance alone, commonly estimated at 22
leagues, but which Las Casas makes '24 y 25 leguas de sierras
altísimas,' inclines me to this opinion, not to mention
several others pointing in the same direction, which will
clearly appear in the text.
[XII-4] 'Yo ví firmado de su nombre del mismo Obispo, en una
relacion que hizo al Emperador en Barcelona el año de 1519,
cuando él de la tierra firme vino, como más largo adelante,
placiendo á Dios, será referido, que habia muerto el Vasco
Nuñez, por hacer los bergantines, 500 indios, y el secretario
del mismo Obispo me dijo que no quiso poner más número
porque no pareciese cosa increible, pero que la verdad era
que llegaban ó pasaban de 2,000.' _Las Casas_, _Hist. Ind._,
iv. 233-4. 'No se hallo que Castellano ninguno muriesse, ni
negro, aunque de los Indios fueron muchos los que perecieron.'
_Herrera_, dec. ii. lib. ii. cap. xi.
[XII-5] Pascual de Andagoya asserts that the worm-eaten timber
was put together on the Balsas and navigated, though with
great difficulty, to the gulf of San Miguel, and thence to the
Pearl Islands; and that there they soon foundered. _Relacion
de los sucesos de Pedrarias Dávila_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de
Viages_, iii. 404. This statement, though entitled to great
weight, is not sustained by the other authorities.
[XII-6] If I have applied strong terms of denunciation to
Pedrarias Dávila, it is because he unquestionably deserves
it. He is by far the worst man who came officially to the New
World during its early government. In this all authorities
agree. And all agree that Vasco Nuñez was not deserving
of death. Andagoya, _Relacion_, in _Navarrete_, _Col. de
Viages_, iii. 403-5, is an excellent authority. Says Las
Casas, _Hist. Ind._, iv. 240, 'Dijeron que esta falsedad
ó testimonio falso, ó quizá verdad, escribió Garabito á
Pedrarias porque Vasco Nuñez, por una india que tenia por
amiga, le habia de palabra maltratado.' Some of the more
knowing among the chroniclers say that God punished Vasco
Nuñez with this death for his treatment of Nicuesa. Will they
at the same time tell us for what God permitted Pedrarias to
live? 'Desta manera acabó el adelantamiento de Vasco Nuñez,
descubridor de la mar del Sur, é pagó la muerte del capitan
Diego de Nicuesa; por la qual é por otras culpas permitió
Dios que oviesse tal muerte, é no por lo quel pregon deçia,
porque la que llamaban traycion, ninguno la tuvo por tal.'
_Oviedo_, iii. 60. Herrera everywhere speaks in the highest
terms of Vasco Nuñez, and pronounces the character and conduct
of Pedrarias detestable. Says Gomara, _Hist. Ind._, 85,
'Ni pareciera delante del gouernador, aunque mas su suegro
fuera. Juntosele con esto, la muerte de Diego de Nicuesa,
y sus sesenta compañeros. La prision del bachiller Enciso,
y que era vãdolero reboltoso, cruel, y malo para Indios.'
Of Balboa's denial of guilt, in _Hist. Mondo Nvovo_, i. 51,
Benzoni writes, 'Valboa con giuramento negò, dicendo, che in
quanto toccaua alla informatione che contra lui s'era fatta
di solleuargli la gente che l'era à torto, e falsamente
accusato, e che considerasse bene quello che faceua, e se
lui hauesse tal cosa tentata, non saria venuto alla presentia
sua, e similmente del resto, si difese il meglio che puote ma
dove regnano le forze, poco gioua defendersi con la ragione.'
And Peter Martyr, dec. iv. cap. ix., testifies, 'Vaschum ab
Austro accersit Petrus Arias: paret dicto Vaschus, in catenas
conjicitur. Negat Vaschus tale consilium cogitasse. Testes
quæruntur malefactorum, quæ patraverat: ab initio dicta
colliguntur, morte dignus censetur, perimitur.' And 'what
stomach' he further adds, 'Pedrarias Dávila may have, should
he ever return to Spain, let good men judge.'
[XIII-1] The city or town council, composed of the alcalde,
regidores, and other officers having the administration or
economical and political management of municipal affairs.
The word _cabildo_ has essentially the same signification as
_ayuntamiento_, _regimiento_, _consejo_, _municipalidad_, and
_consejo municipal_. A _cabildo eclesiástico_ is a bishop's
council or chapter. The authority invested in this body at
Antigua at this time, to check Pedrarias, was wholly unusual
and extraordinary.
[XIII-2] First by the hand of Pedrarias de Ávila, the
governor's nephew, February 16, 1515, and again January 28,
1516. See _Puente_, _Carta_, in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_,
_Col. Doc._, 541-8; _Gonzalez Dávila_, _Teatro Ecles._, ii.
57.
[XIII-3] Juan de Quevedo was a friar of the order of St
Francis, a native of Bejori in Old Castile; was consecrated
bishop by Leo X., and died December 24, 1519. He was a
double-faced divine, mercenary, but with good-natured
proclivities. Gonzalez Dávila who gives his biography, _Teatro
Ecles._, ii. 58, says that he was defeated in the discussions
with Las Casas. See also _Remesal_, _Hist. Chyapa_, 73-6.
[XIII-4] Herrera, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii. lib. iii. cap.
iii., gives the erroneous impression that, when Pedrarias
retired to Panamá, Espinosa was left to govern at Antigua as
captain-general. Acosta, _Compend. Hist. Nueva Granada_, 75-6,
copies the error.
[XIII-5] In fact, neither Nombre de Dios nor Panamá, as
at this time located, remained; the former, by order of
Philip II., being removed five leagues to the westward,
to Portobello, and the city of Panamá being refounded two
leagues west of the original site, each port, at the time of
its depopulation, claiming over 40,000 Spaniards as victims
to the unwholesomeness of the climate, during a period of
twenty-eight years. It was not until after these places had
become the entrepôts for a large traffic with Peru and the
north-western coast that the changes were made.
[XIII-6] It was in the former instance that Pedrarias sought
to pluralize his ownership by taking possession, quasi
possession, and repossession, as fully related in that
curious document by Mozolay, _Testimonio_, in _Pacheco_ and
_Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, ii. 549-56, of which I have made an
abstract in a previous chapter.
[XIII-7] A better anchorage, owing to the wide stretch of
shelving beach at Panamá, which was uncovered at low tide.
Herrera says that in his day vessels in summer rode in the
strand, and in the winter in the haven of Perico, two leagues
from the port of Panamá.
[XIII-8] As Pascual de Andagoya, _Relacion_, in _Navarrete_,
_Col. de Viages_, iii. 406, says, 'Panamá se fundó el año de
19, dia de Ntra. Sra. de Agosto, y en fin de aquel año pobló
al Nombre de Dios un capitan Diego Alvites por mandado de
Pedrarias.' And Herrera writes, dec. ii. lib. iii. cap. iii.,
'Concordandose todos en esto, llamò Pedrarias a un escrivano,
y le pidio por testimonio como alli de positiva una villa q̃
se llamasse Panamá en nõbre de Dios y de la Reyna doña Iuana,
y don Carlos su hijo, y protestava dela defender en el dicho
nombres a qualesquier cõtrarios.' See further _Las Casas_,
_Hist. Ind._, v. 200-20; _Morelli_, _Fasti Novi Orbis_, 17;
_Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, iii. 61-4; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, 85;
_Benzoni_, _Hist. Mondo Nvovo_, 51; _Du Perier_, _Gen. Hist.
Voy._, 167; _Panamá, Descrip._ in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_,
_Col. Doc._, ix. 89-90; _Zuazo_, _Carta_, in _id._, xi.
312-19; _Gonzalez Dávila_, _Teatro Ecles._, ii. 56; _Purchas_,
_His Pilgrimes_, iv. 882.
[XIII-9] Morelli, _Fasti Novi Orbis_, 16, states that Albites
entered the Rio Chagre in 1515. 'Didacus Albitez itidem
Hispanus Chagre fluvium subiit.' In 1516 were put forward
his pretensions to conquest in the direction of Veragua.
_Herrera_, dec. ii. lib. ii. cap. xi.; _Andagoya's Nar._, 23;
_Oviedo_, iii. 61-71; _Galvano's Discov._, 31.
[XIII-10] Peter Martyr says the road was wide enough to give
passage for two carts side by side, 'to the intent that they
might passe ouer with ease to search ye secrets of either
spacious Sea;' but at the writing of his sixth decade the road
was not completed.
[XIII-11] Lying north of Nicoya, and so called to-day, that is
to say Puerto de Culebra. South of Lake Nicaragua, on Colon's
and Ribero's maps we find _G. de S. tiago_; Vaz Dourado, _b∴
de Samtiago_. By some chart-makers the results and names of
one discovery were known, by others, those of another; the
final appellation depended on circumstances.
[XIII-12] Oviedo's statements concerning himself during this
period of angry excitement must be taken with due allowance.
The chronicler gives himself and his affairs at great length;
but I will endeavor, in my curtailment of his account, not
to forget that there were at this time, and before and after,
twenty equally important issues of which there are less full
records. See _Oviedo_, iii. 41-56 and 72-88; _José Amador
de los Rios_, _Vida y Escritos de Oviedo_, in _id._, i. pp.
ix.-cvii.; _Herrera_, dec. ii. lib. ii. cap. x.
[XIII-13] 'From which it may be seen,' says Oviedo, 'with what
justice Vasco Nuñez was condemned, when his chief accomplice
comes back not only acquitted but with honors.'
[XIV-1] There were three of this name whom we shall encounter,
the contador of Española; the licenciado, who was alcalde
mayor of the Spanish main under Diego de Ordaz, in 1530;
_Simon_, _Conq. Tierra Firme_, 106-27; and the clergyman
and chief chronicler, in 1655, of the Indies, and of both
Castiles.
[XIV-2] The royal agreement was made specially with Niño,
'piloto de su magestad para el descubrimiento,' Gil Gonzalez
being named captain-general. Niño was to explore 1,000 leagues
to the westward for spices, gold, silver, pearls, and precious
stones, in three ships, furnished half by the crown and half
by the explorers, who were to receive for the purpose 4,000
castellanos de oro, from the sums to the credit of the crown
in the hands of the factor of Castilla del Oro. One twentieth
of what God might thus give them, after the king should have
received his fifth, was to be devoted to pious purposes. The
net proceeds to be divided equally between the crown and the
discoverers, according to the amount contributed by each.
Wages paid the crew to be counted in the costs; or if they
went on shares, two thirds should go to the king and Niño, and
one third to the captain, officers, and men. Supplies were to
be exempt from duty, and the explorers should have an interest
in the lands discovered by them. The crown agreed to furnish
at Jamaica 2,000 loads of cassava-root, and 500 hogs; also ten
negro slaves, the explorer to pay the owners for ten Indian
slaves to serve as interpreters. For the faithful performance
of these and other obligations, the explorer was required to
give bonds in the sum of 2,000 ducats. Herrera, dec. ii. lib.
iv. cap. i., gives only a part of the contract; in _Squier's
MSS._, i. 12-14, is the document in full.
[XIV-3] A copy of this cédula may be found in _Squier's MSS._,
i.
[XIV-4] In the Expediente sobre el Cumplimiento de la
Cédula—see _Los Navíos de Vasco Nuñez_, in _Squier's MSS._—is
given at wearisome length the ceremony and sayings at this
delivery and the results. Briefly, on the 4th of February,
1520, Pedrarias humbled himself to the dust before the sacred
cédula; February 5th, he talked much, saying that he had
finished the ships begun by Vasco Nuñez; that they had cost
more than 50,000 ducados, beside sweat and blood; that with
them the great city of Panamá—'la cibdad de Panamá'—with its
gold mines on one side and pearl fisheries on the other, had
been founded and the country thereabout pacified, and that
if the king knew all this he would not take the ships from
those who had built them and give them to another; February
7th, Juan del Sauce declared that, unless the ships were
surrendered, all the gold, pearls, or other property taken in
them would belong, under the king's order, to the fleet of
Gil Gonzalez; February 8th, Pedrarias replied that without
the ships the city could neither be sustained nor labor
be continued, and he called on the royal officers present,
Puente, the treasurer, Marquez, the contador, and Juan de
Rivas, factor, to say that these things were so; but the
royal officers answered that Pedrarias must obey the king's
command and give Gil Gonzalez the ships, keeping one, perhaps,
with which to protect the city, and selling the others to Gil
Gonzalez on such terms as he and the owners might arrange. In
regard to withholding the ships Pedrarias was certainly in the
right, though it was dangerous, and he claimed that he would
obey and was obeying the king; but when, on February 9th, he
demanded that Gil Gonzalez should appear in person and lay
before him the instructions and plans of the expedition, he
became most coolly impudent.
[XIV-5] Squier, _Dis. Nic._, MSS., 13, says the worms
destroyed them, but Gil Gonzalez himself only remarks, _Carta
al Rey_, MSS., 1, 'Despues de hechos otros navios en la Ysla
de las perlas porque los 4 primeros que se hizieron en la
tierra firme se perdieron.'
[XIV-6] Some say from 200 to 80. Both numbers, however,
should be larger; for the expedition gained men at Acla, and
100 are mentioned as constituting one land party during the
expedition. _Gil Gonzalez_, _Carta al Rey_, MSS., 3.
[XIV-7] Tararequi Island, Galvano, _Discov._, 148, calls it;
others, Terequeri Islands. Gil Gonzalez writes plainly enough,
_Carta al Rey_, MS., 2, 'Me bolbí á la dicha Ysla de las
Perlas ... i de aí me partí a hazer el descubrimiento que V
M me mando hazer.' The same authority states that the second
four vessels were built at the Pearl Islands, the others
having been 'lost in the river 40 leagues distant.'
[XIV-8] For conflicting statements concerning this, compare
_Gil Gonzalez_, _Carta al Rey_, MS., 16, 36; _Andagoya's
Nar._, 31-2; _Niño_, _Asiento_, MS., in _Squier's MSS._, i.
14, and in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, xiv. 5-19;
_Oviedo_, iii. 65-71; _Las Casas_, _Hist. Ind._, v. 200-4;
_Herrera_, dec. ii. lib. iii. cap. xv.; dec. ii. lib. iv. cap.
i.; dec. iii. i. cap. xvi.; _Helps' Span. Conq._, iii. 69, 70,
74-6; _Gordon's Anc. Mex._, ii. 204-8; _Squier's Dis. Nic._,
MSS., 7-10.
[XIV-9] I follow the commander's own statement, made to the
royal authorities from Santo Domingo, March 6, 1524. Of this,
which I quote as _Carta de Gil Gonzalez Dávila al Rey_, I
have several copies in manuscript, the best being a part of
the first volume of the Squier Collection. This collection,
consisting of twenty-three volumes of manuscripts, beside
separate pieces on various early affairs in Central America
and Mexico, fell into my hands at the sale of the library
of the late E. G. Squier, so widely known as an antiquarian
and historical writer, a review of whose works will appear
in a subsequent volume. The opportunities afforded Mr Squier
by his official position as _chargé d'affaires_ to Central
America, in 1849, and by his researches, combined with a
natural bent as student and author, prompted the collection
of books and manuscripts relative to Central America, a large
proportion of which I found useful in filling gaps in my own
sixteenth-century material. It seems that Mr Squier intended
the publication of a series of documents for history, of
which the _Carta de Palacio_ was printed at Albany, 1859,
and numbered I. The first volume of the Squier Collection of
Manuscripts contains, beside the _Carta de Gil Gonzalez_,
several documents on Nicaraguan discovery certified by
Navarrete, Buckingham Smith, and Squier, as true copies of the
originals in the archives at Seville and in the Hydrographic
Collection, notable among which are _Real Cedula de S. M.
expedida en 18 de Junio de 1519, á Pedrarias Dávila, para que
entregase los Navios de Basco Nuñez a Gil Gonzales de Avila y
los requerimientos que pasaron sobre ello_; and _Relacion Del
Asiento y Capitulacion que se tomó con Andres Niño, Piloto
de su Magestad para el descubrimiento que prometió hazer en
el Mar del Sur con 3 Navios, y por Capitan de ellos á Gil
Gonzales Dávila_.
[XIV-10] Peter Martyr states that they passed over a body of
water to get to it; Herrera and Oviedo both testify to a large
island, which we might believe were any such island there.
The truth is, parts of the land were inundated at this time
by the heavy rains, so that the peninsula being cut off from
the mainland by the water made it appear an island.
[XIV-11] Later called Nicoya, from the cacique of that
country, which name it bears to-day. This was the San Lúcar
of Hurtado. See chap. xi., note 11, this volume. Kohl thinks
it may have been the 5th of April, the day of San Vicente
Ferrer, that the Spaniards arrived here. Gomara states that
in early times it was also called Golfo de Ortiña, and Golfo
de Guetares; _Goldschmidt's Cartography of the Pacific Coast_,
MS., ii. 111-13.
[XIV-12] Which was received by 9,017 natives, large and small,
in one day, and with such enthusiasm that the Spaniards even
wept. This is as much as one having only ordinary faith can be
expected to believe at once, yet the strain on one's credulity
becomes more severe when the right honorable Gil Gonzalez
calls heaven to witness that he told each man and woman, apart
from the others, that God did not want unwilling service, and
that each for himself expressed a desire for it. If we allow
him 15 hours for his day's work, it makes 61 persons an hour,
or one a minute, who were examined and baptized.
[XIV-13] The Spaniards were at this time ignorant of the use
to which these mounds were put. Had they known them to be
great altars upon which were sacrificed human beings, the mild
and philosophic Nicaragua might have had occasion to prove
the valor of his warriors.
[XIV-14] 'I digo mar,' says Gil Gonzalez, _Carta al Rey_, MS.,
'porque creze i mengua.'
[XIV-15] 'Los pilotos qve conmigo llebaba certifican qve
sale a la mar del norte; i si asi es, es mui grand nueba,
porqve abra de vna mar a otra 2 o 3 legvas de camino mui
llano.' Thus it will be seen that the question of interoceanic
communication attracted the attention of the first Europeans
who saw Lake Nicaragua, and this very naturally; for it must
be remembered that Gil Gonzalez was in search of a strait or
passage through the continent, and if perchance he should find
the Moluccas thereabout, his whole object would be attained.
[XIV-16] The word Nicaragua was first heard spoken by
Europeans at Nicoya, where Gil Gonzalez had been notified
of the country and its ruler. In the earliest reports it is
found written _Nicaragua_, _Micaragua_, _Nicorragua_, and
_Nicarao_. Upon the return of Gil Gonzalez the name Nicaragua
became famous, and beside being applied to the cacique and his
town, was gradually given to the surrounding country, and to
the lake. It was by some vaguely used to designate the whole
region behind and between Hibueras and Veragua. Later there
was the Provincia de Nicaragua, beside El Nuevo Reyno de Leon.
Herrera and many others mention the Indian pueblo by the lake.
For a time the lake was known as the _Mar Dulce_. Thus Colon
lays it down on his map, in 1527, as the _mar duce_, and the
town or province _micaragua_. Ribero, 1529, calls the lake
_mar dulce_ and the town _nicaragua_. Munich Atlas, No. vi.,
gives only _micaragua_, which No. vii. makes _nicaragua_.
Ramusio, _Viaggi_, iii. 455, gives _Nicaragva_ as a province.
Mercator, in his Atlas of 1574, gives the town of _Nicaragua_.
Iudocus Hondius, in _Drake's World Encomp._, applies the term
_Nicaragva_ to a province or large extent of country. Ogilby,
Dampier, De Laet, and other contemporary and later authorities
extend the name to the lake.
[XIV-17] The narrative says 3,000 or 4,000; I name the lowest
number, giving the reader the right of reducing at pleasure.
[XIV-18] The name of the bay remains; that of the island is
lost. The early names of the islands in this bay were _S.
Miguel la Possession_, _La Possession_, and _Esposescion_;
_Amapalla_, _Amapala_, or _I del Tigre_; _y. de flecheros_,
_Mangera_, or _Manguera_. Jefferys calls the bay _Fonseca_
or _Amapalla_. East of _b: de fomsequa_ Vaz Dourado places
the wood _monic_. Mercator locates the town _Canicol_ on
the southern shore. Ogilby places the town _Xeres_, De Laet
_Xerez_, near _B. de Fonseca_. On one map there is _Xeres_ or
_Chuluteca_, on the eastern shore, and _El viejo las Salinas_
river flowing into the bay.
[XIV-19] Further references to this voyage, unimportant,
however, are made in _Galvano's Discov._, 148-9, where it
is stated that 'Nigno' reached 'Tecoantepec'; _Pacheco_ and
_Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, i. 440; _Ogilby's Am._, 238; _Crowe's
Cent. Am._, 58; _Gordon's Anc. Mex._, ii. 204-8; _Peter
Martyr_, dec. vi. cap. ii.-v.; _Conder's Mex. and Guat._, ii.
301; _Juarros_, _Guat._, passim; _Pim's Gate of Pacific_, 34;
_Morelli_, _Fasti Novi Orbis_, 18; _Andagoya's Nar._, 31-2.
[XV-1] [Illustration]
In making settlements, as in all things relating to the New
World, it was the aim of the Spanish government to reduce
details to law. At p. 19, vol. ii. et seq., _Recop. de
Indias_, we find the ordenanzas de la poblacion de ciudades y
villas begun by Charles V., in 1523, and continued by Philip
II., Felipe III., and Felipe IV., down to 1656. Therein it was
ordered that in choosing a site for settlement, which always
implied the building of a town or city, care must be taken
that the place be suitable in every respect. It should be
ascertained if it was a healthy locality, if the young natives
were well and strong, if many of the people attained old age,
if the country was favorable to agriculture or mining, and
of easy access by land and sea; if by the sea, there should
be a good harbor, and, if possible, the town must be placed
by a river. Open pueblos must not be built on the seashore
because of corsairs. The site being chosen, a plan of the
place must be made, the squares formed, and the streets and
lots laid out, and measured by cord and rule. The location
of the plaza, or public and official square, was of primary
import, since from it to the principal entrances ran the most
important streets. After the land had been set apart for town
lots and ejidos, or commons, the country adjacent was to be
divided into four parts, one of them for the person making
the settlement, and the remainder to be assigned by lot to the
settlers. In inland settlements, the church should be located
at a distance from the plaza, and on the street running
from the plaza to the church were to be placed the _casas
reales_, or offices and dwelling of the crown officials,
the _cabildo_, _consejo_, or the city-hall, the _aduana_,
or custom-house, and the _atarazana_, or arsenal. Or the
church was placed on one side of the plaza; the royal houses
and the municipal house on another; the custom-house on the
third; while the remaining side might be devoted to business
houses or dwellings. Thus a stranger entering any Spanish
town could find without direction all the principal places.
Marketing-stalls, usually with an awning, were admitted in the
plaza. If a seaboard town, the church must be so placed that
it could be seen on entering the harbor, and so constructed
as to serve for purposes of defence. In this case the plaza
must be at the landing; if inland, in the centre of the town.
In form it must be a parallelogram, the length to be at least
one and a half times the width, as the best shape for feats
of horsemanship; its size should be, according to population,
not less than 200 by 300 feet, nor more than 800 by 532 feet,
a good size being 600 by 400 feet. From the plaza, whose
corners stood toward the four cardinal points, issued four
principal streets, one from the middle of each side, and
two smaller streets from each corner. In cold countries the
streets had to be wide; in hot countries, narrow. Houses not
to be built within 300 _pasos_ or 750 feet, of the walls or
stockade. Town lots and lands not distributed to settlers
belonged to the king, and were reserved for future settlers.
Then the law states how first settlers must hasten with their
house-building, after having planted and assured themselves
of food for the season, building with economy and strength,
and throwing round the town palisades and intrenchments.
The houses must be uniform, and with good accommodations for
horses.
[Illustration]
Any ten or more married men might unite to form a new
settlement, and might elect annually from among themselves
_alcaldes ordinarios_ and other municipal officers. When
it was possible to establish a _villa de Españoles_ with
a council of alcaldes ordinarios and regidores, and there
was a responsible person with whom to make an agreement for
settlement, the agreement was to be as follows: Within a time
specified there must be from ten to thirty settlers, each
with one horse, ten milch cows, four oxen, one brood mare,
one sow, twenty ewes of Castile, six hens, and a cock. A
clergyman must be provided, the first incumbent to be named
by the chief of the colony, and his successors in accordance
with the royal right of patronage. A church must be built,
which the founder of the settlement supplied with ornaments,
and to which were granted lands. Any one agreeing to form a
settlement, and conforming to the regulations, had given him
land equivalent to four square leagues, distant at least five
leagues from any other Spanish settlement; and he was himself
to enter into agreement with each enrolled settler to give
a town lot, lands for pasturage and cultivation, and as many
_peonías_, or shares of foot-soldiers, and _caballerías_, or
shares of cavalrymen, as each would obligate himself to work,
provided that to no one was to be given more than five peonías
or three caballerías. The principal with whom an agreement for
settling was made, to hold civil and criminal jurisdiction
in first instance, during life, and for that of one son or
heir, and from him appeal might lie to the alcalde mayor
or the audiencia of the district. He might appoint alcaldes
ordinarios, regidores, and other municipal officers. Those
going from Spain as first settlers were exempted from the
payment of _almojarifazgo_, or export duty, or other crown
dues, on what they took for their household and maintenance
during the first voyage to the Indies. Bachelors should be
persuaded to marry.
When a colony was about to leave a city to make a settlement,
the _justicia_ and _regimiento_ should file with the
_escribano del consejo_ a list of the persons migrating;
and lest the mother city should be depopulated, those only
were eligible who had no town lots or agricultural lands.
The number of colonists being complete, they were to elect
officers, and each colonist to register the sum he intended
to employ in the enterprise. And even after the settlement
had been begun, whether as _colonia_, that is, colonists
in voluntary association, or _adelantamiento_, _alcaldía
mayor_, _corregimiento_, enterprises headed respectively by
an adelantado, alcalde mayor, or corregidor, or _villa_, or
_lugar_, the fathers of it were forbidden to wholly leave the
people to themselves.
Discoverers, pacificators, first settlers and their immediate
descendants, possessed advantages over others. They were made
_hijosdalgo de solar conocido_, with all the honors, according
to law and custom, of hijosdalgo and gentlemen of Spain. They
might bear arms, by giving bonds, before any justice, that
they would use them solely in self-defence. And that it might
be known who were entitled to reward, viceroys and presidents
of audiencias were directed to examine into the merits of
cases, and see that a book was kept by the _escribano de
gobernacion_, in which were recorded the services and merits
of every person seeking preferment.
For the government of the settlement, the governor in whose
district it might be, had to declare whether it was to
be _ciudad_, _villa_, or _lugar_, that is to say, a town
less than a _villa_, and greater than _aldea_. A _ciudad
metropolitana_, or capital of the province, to have a _juez_
with the title of _adelantado_, that is to say, a military
and political governor of a province; or _alcalde mayor_,
governor of a pueblo not the capital of the province; or
_corregidor_, a magistrate with criminal jurisdiction only;
or _alcalde ordinario_, mayor with criminal jurisdiction. This
_juez_ was to have jurisdiction _in solidum_, and jointly with
the _regimiento_. The administration of public affairs was
vested in two or three treasury officials, twelve _regidores_,
or members of the town council, appointed, not elected; two
_fieles ejecutores_, or regidores having charge of weights;
in each parish two _jurados_, who saw that people were well
provided, especially with provisions; a _procurador general_,
attorney with general powers; a _mayordomo_, having charge
of public property; an _escribano de consejo_, notary of the
council; two _escribanos públicos_; one _escribano de minas
y registros_; a _pregonero mayor_, official vendue-master; a
_corredor de lonja_, merchants' broker, and two _porteros_,
or janitors of the town council. If the city was _diocesana_,
or _sufragánea_, it must have eight regidores, and the other
officers in perpetuity; villas and lugares only to have
an alcalde ordinario, say, four regidores, an alguacil, or
bailiff, an _escribano de consejo y público_, and a mayordomo.
[XV-2] [Illustration: ARMS OF THE CITY OF PANAMÁ.]
The title was 'Nueva Ciudad de Panamá.' _Décadas_, in
_Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, viii. 16. A second
decree, dated from Lisbon December 3, 1581, added to the
title 'muy noble y muy leal.' _Panamá_, _Descrip._, in _id._,
ix. 80. A half-page representation of the arms is given in
_Gonzalez Dávila_, _Teatro Ecles._, ii. 56—shield on golden
field divided; on the right a handful of gray arrows with blue
points and silvery feathers, and a yoke, the device of the
Catholic kings. On the left three caravels, significant of
Spice Island or other commerce, over which shines the north
star. Above the golden field a crown, and round the field a
border of castles and lions. 'Tambien le diò los Honores, y
Titulos de muy Noble, y muy Leal, y que sus Regidores gozen
del Titulo de Veintiquatros.'
[XV-3] The prior of Lora, chaplain of the king in 1522,
was proposed to the pope for the office of bishop of the
country lying between Nombre de Dios and Higueras. 'Siruenla
cinco Dignidades, y dos Canonigos, tres Capellanes: y ocho
Colegiales del Colegio. Tiene Sacristan Mayor con carga de
Sochantre en el Coro; y tiene vna sola Parroquia en ella,
y su comarca.' _Gonzalez Dávila_, _Teatro Ecles._, ii. 56.
This author, as well as Alcedo in _Dic. Univ._, iv. 33, gives
a list of bishops, but both are incorrect. It was somewhat
later, the time of which is written in _Purchas_, _His
Pilgrimes_, iv. 882. 'The limits of the Counsell of _Panama_,
which was first called _Castilla del Oro_, and afterwards
_Terra Firme_, are very small; for the Counsell is principally
resident there, for the dispatch of the Fleetes and Merchants,
which goe and come to _Peru_: it hath in length East and West
about ninetie leagues.' Further reference, _Morelli_, _Fasti
Novi Orbis_, 96; _Oviedo_, iii. 57-117; _Herrera_, dec. iii.
lib. i. cap. xvi.; _Carta de la Audiencia de Santo Domingo_,
in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, i. 413; _Enciso_,
_Suma de Geografia_, 57.
[XV-4] As a discoverer, his talents were unequal to the
attempt. As a writer, Andagoya figured with Oviedo, Enciso,
and other noted men in the retinue of the unscrupulous
Pedrarias. Born in Alava province, he came to the
Isthmus in 1514, and took an active part in the various
expeditions for its subjugation and settlement. Through
the favor of Pedrarias, whose wife's maid he married, he
rose to encomendero, to regidor of Panamá, and, in 1522,
to inspector-general of the Isthmus Indians. The present
expedition, which brought back wonderful reports of the Inca
empire, might have gained him the glories of that conquest,
or at least he might have shared them with Pizarro, had his
health not broken down. As it was, he merely acquired wealth
as agent for the Peruvian hero, and although he rose afterward
to adelantado and governor of New Castile, his integrity
and comparative want of audacity prevented him from reaping
the benefits within reach of less scrupulous rivals. The
original of his well-written narrative, relating the history
of the Isthmus and adjoining region in connection with his
career, was found by Navarrete in the Seville Archives, and
published in his _Col. de Viages_, iii. 393-459, from which
source Markham made the translation issued in 1865 by the
Hakluyt Society. Oviedo's account of Andagoya's career, from a
different source, iv. 126-32, confirms the general exactness
of his narrative, although Acosta, _Comp. Hist. Nueva
Granada_, 383, declares it colored with a view to advocate
his claim to the governorship of New Castile. _Helps' Span.
Conq._, iii. 426, and _March y Labores_, _Marina Española_,
ii. 121, give Andagoya's voyage.
[XVI-1] [Illustration]
Called by Herrera, Ymabite, and by Juarros, _Guat._, following
him, Imabite. 'Y poblò en medio de la provincia de Ymabite,
la ciudad de Leon, con templo, y fortaleza.' dec. iii. lib.
v. cap. xii. See also _Relacion de Andagoya_, in _Navarrete_,
_Col. de Viages_, iii. 413; _Exposicion á S. M. por la
justicia y regimiento de la ciudad de Granada_, in _Pacheco_
and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, vii. 555-6; _Relacion de lo que
escriben los oidores_, in _id._, xiv. 39; _Remesal_, _Hist.
Chyapa_, 164; _Oviedo_, iii. 113-14, 119, iv. 100-1. Fray
Gil Gonzalez Dávila, in _Teatro Ecles._, i. 233, gives a
representation of what he calls the 'armas de la civdad de
Nicaragva,' consisting of a shield bearing in its field a
rampant lion with the left paw resting on a globe. The shield
is surmounted by a crown. In view of the usual remoteness
of this writer from the truth, we may apply the term city of
Nicaragua to any city in Nicaragua, notwithstanding he affirms
it to be the place discovered by Gil Gonzalez in 1522, and
peopled by Hernandez and Pedrarias.
[XVI-2] Consisting of gold from 12 to 18 carats by actual
assay, amounting to 17,000 pesos de oro; of an inferior
quality, known as _hachas_, 15,363 pesos; in rattle-shaped
pieces, said to be of no standard value, 6,182 pesos. _Gil
Gonzalez Dávila_, _Carta al Rey_, MS. There were likewise 145
pesos worth of pearls, of which 80 pesos' worth were obtained
from the Pearl Islands. _Relacion del viage que hizo Gil
Gonzalez Dávila_, in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._,
xiv. 20-24. This document gives in detail, beside the quantity
of pearls secured, the distance journeyed, the dimensions of
the islands, the names of the provinces through which they
passed, with their caciques, the gold taken from each, and
the souls baptized. There are also here given, 5-20, _id._,
_Andrés Niño_, _Relacion del asiento_, or agreement with the
king; _Relacion de lo que va en la armada_, with the cost of
outfit, etc.
[XVI-3] The 10th of March, 1524, the royal officers at
Española, Miguel de Pasamonte and Alonso Dávila, write the
king that Captain Gil Gonzalez Dávila is there about to embark
'to seek the strait from north to south'—'Torna agora á buscar
el Estrecho de Norte á Sur.' _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col.
Doc._, i. 440.
[XVI-4] 'El mal tiempo echo a la mar algunos de los cavallos
que llevava, de donde le quedó el nombre.' _Herrera_, dec.
iii. lib. v. cap. xii. Oviedo mentions the death of a horse
which was buried with great secrecy, lest the natives should
learn they were mortal. Fernando Colon, in 1527, writes _a:
de cauallos_; Ribero, in 1529, _C∴ de cauallos_; Vaz Dourado,
1571, _p∴ de caualos_, with the name _triqueste_ next west;
De Laet, 1633, _Po de Cavallos_; Ogilby, 1671, _Pta d.
Cavallos_; Jefferys, 1776, _Pto Cavallos_; and to-day as
in the text.
[XVI-5] Oviedo, iii. 114, says that two or three days
afterward Soto and his companions were released upon parole,
and their arms restored them.
[XVI-6] Town, port, and cape. Some English charts still retain
the name _Cape Triunfo_. Ribero writes _t'ũfo de la c̃z_; Vaz
Dourado, _triumfo dellai_, the next name west being _piita
de la call_, and next to this, _rio de pochi_, which Ribero
calls _R∴ d' pechi_. Next west of this name Ribero places
_p∴o de hellados_. Ogilby, De Laet, Jefferys, and others
give _Triumpho_ or _Triumfo de la Cruz_.
[XVII-1] See chapter iv., note 6, this volume.
[XVII-2] 'Una que llaman Hueitapalan y en otra lengua Xucutaco
... ocho ó diez jornadas de aquella villa de Trujillo.'
_Cortés_, _Cartas_, 469. 'Higueras y Hõduras, que tenian fama
de mucho oro y buena tierra.' _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 233.
[XVII-3] _Cartas_, 315, letter of 13 Oct., 1524. The letter
of the emperor commanding him to search both coasts is dated
6 June, 1523.
[XVII-4] Soldiers, 370, including 100 archers and
arquebusiers, and 22 horses, says _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist.
Verdad._, 176. 'Por todos çinco navios gruessos ó caravelas
é un bergantin.' _Oviedo_, iii. 459.
[XVII-5] Also written Oli, Olit, Olite, Dolid, Dolit. A
hidalgo of Baeza. _Oviedo_, iii. 188. See chap. vi. vol. i.,
_Hist. Mexico_, this series.
[XVII-6] Bernal Diaz describes him as 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. 'Era un Hector en el esfuerço, para
combatir.' He was married to a Portuguese, Felipa de Araujo,
by whom he had a daughter. _Hist. Verdad._, 176, 177, 240.
Further references in chap. vi. vol. i., _Hist. Mexico_, this
series.
[XVII-7] The lobes of his ears were shorn by captors, he
said, of a fortress which he had aided too obstinately in
defending. Bernal Diaz appears to doubt this explanation.
_Hist. Verdad._, 176, 177.
[XVII-8] The agent, Alonso de Contreras, had received 8,000
pesos de oro for the purpose, in order that the expedition
should not be hampered for want of means, nor be obliged to
prey at once upon the natives. _Oviedo_, iii. 459. Cortés
estimates the total cost of the expedition at over 50,000
ducats. _Mem._, in _Doc. Inéd._, iv. 227; _Instruc._, in
_Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, xiii. 5; _Gastos_,
in _id._, xii. 386, with details of expenses. The purchases
were made ere the presence of the fleet should raise prices
at Habana, and yet a fanega of maize cost two pesos de oro,
a sword eight pesos, a crossbow twenty, and a firelock one
hundred; while a shipmaster received eight hundred pesos a
month. _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 243.
[XVII-9] 'Se habia confederado el tal Cristóbal Dolit con
Diego Velazquez, y que iba con voluntad de no me obedecer,
antes de le entregar la tierra al dicho Diego Velazquez
y juntarse con él contra mi.' _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 337.
'Cõcertarõ ... q̃ entre él, y Christoval de Oli, tuviesen
aquella tierra de Higueras ... y q̃ el Diego Velazquez le
proveeria de lo q̃ huviesse menester.' _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist.
Verdad._, 177; _Oviedo_, iii. 113; _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._,
243.
[XVII-10] If not, he would return to Mexico to his wife and
estates, and affirm before Cortés that his agreement with
Velazquez was subterfuge on his part to obtain stores and men.
_Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 177.
[XVII-11] 'Con que començò a entender que se yua apartando de
la obediencia de Cortés.' _Herrera_, dec. iii. lib. v. cap.
xii.
[XVII-12] _Juarros_, _Guat._, 42-3. It was soon abandoned.
See chap. xvi., note 5, this volume.
[XVII-13] This according to _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 269, and
_Cortés_, _Cartas_, 467, who do not, however, clearly indicate
that Valenzuela was one of Olid's officers. Informed of the
wreck, by Casas probably, Cortés sent a vessel for them, which
was also wrecked, on the Cuban coast. Bernal Diaz, _Hist.
Verdad._, 208, alludes to this party as twenty-five men sent
to kidnap Indians.
[XVII-14] 'Cum narium et venarum gutturis summo tumore præ
ira, sæpe dedit de tanta animi perturbatione signa, neque a
verbis id significantibus abstinuit.' _Peter Martyr_, dec.
viii. cap. x.
[XVII-15] Cortés did not overlook the application of the
act to his own escapade with Velazquez. In complaining
to the emperor, he assumes that many will regard it as a
_pena peccati_, but explains that Olid had no share in this
expedition, as he himself had had in the one from Cuba.
With respect to the present fleet, he regretted not so much
the loss of 40,000 pesos de oro as the injury the rebellion
must cause the imperial interest, in delay of exploration
and settlement and in excesses against Indians. Further,
he remarks pointedly, such revolts will deter loyal and
enterprising men from embarking their fortune in the service
of the crown. _Cartas_, 337.
[XVII-16] _Herrera_, dec. iii. lib. v. cap. xiii. Cortés,
_Cartas_, 336, calls him 'primo,' which may bear the same
interpretation. Oviedo, iii. 517, calls him brother-in-law.
[XVII-17] Fitted out with sails and rigging of vessels
seized from traders, and with pressed crews; the fleet was
ordered to intercept any communication and aid for Honduras.
_Testimonio_, in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, xii.
274-7. They were all the vessels that could be obtained, it
seems. One or both of the small craft deserted and took refuge
in Cuba, there to leave testimony. See also _Relacion de los
Oidores_, in _id._, xiv. 43; _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 336. Bernal
Diaz places the number of vessels at five and the soldiers at
100, naming 3 conquistadores. _Hist. Verdad._, 194. Out of
the 150 the soldiers probably did number 100, and there may
have been five vessels, for Herrera states that Cortés sent
a ship with stores under Pedro Gonzalez to follow Casas. Off
the very coast of Honduras he was overtaken by a storm which
drove him back to Pánuco with the belief that the fleet must
have perished, dec. iii. lib. v. cap. xiii. Gomara, _Hist.
Mex._, 243, mentions only two vessels.
[XVII-18] 'Assi estuuieron todo aquel dia,' says Herrera,
_loc. cit._, who leaves the reader to suppose that at one time
the advantage leant to Olid's side and caused Casas to hoist
a flag of truce which was disregarded; but other authorities
do not take this view.
[XVII-19] Four soldiers. _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 194;
without loss, says Herrera.
[XVII-20] 'O esperando con intenciõ de se ir a otra baia a
desembarcar,' is one of the suppositions of _Bernal Diaz_,
_Hist. Verdad._, 194. 'Briones ... en teniendo auiso de
Francisco de las Casas, se apartò de Christoual de Olid,
y tomò la voz de Cortes.' _Herrera_, _ubi sup._ It appears
that Briones had by this time gained an advantage over Gil
Gonzalez, capturing over 50 of his men; but he now released
them under certain conditions. _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 459. Bernal
Diaz assumes that Briones' revolt occurred later and that he
set out for Mexico.
[XVII-21] After convincing him by means of two or three days
of exposure and starvation, as Bernal Diaz and Gomara seem to
intimate. Herrera assumes that he won him by kind treatment.
[XVII-22] After the defeat by Briones, Gil Gonzalez seems to
have become bewildered. Leaving a few followers at Nito under
Diego de Armenta, he embarked in three vessels, touched at San
Gil to hang Francisco Riquelme and a clergyman for having led
a revolt, and thence proceeded to Choloma. Owing to Briones'
defection his capture was intrusted to Juan Ruano. _Herrera_,
dec. iii. lib. v. cap. xiii. The seizure was effected with the
loss of his nephew Gil de Ávila and eight soldiers. _Bernal
Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 194; _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 459. Oviedo
assumes that Gonzalez was entrapped by false promises, iii.
188.
[XVII-23] 'Con un cuchillo de escribanías, que otra arma
no tenia ... diciendo: "Ya no es tiempo de sufrir mas este
tirano."' _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 460.
[XVII-24] 'Aqui del Rey, e de Cortés contra este tirano, que
ya no es tiempo de mas sufrir sus tiranias.' _Bernal Diaz_,
_Hist. Verdad._, 195.
[XVII-25] According to Herrera, the confessor, awed by the
proclamation, revealed the hiding-place, after exacting a
promise that no harm should befall his protégé. The promise
was disregarded on the principle that 'dead man wages no war,'
and although Olid _was dead_ when the hour came for execution,
yet the _corpse_ was publicly beheaded, dec. iii. lib. v. cap.
xii. Other authorities do not state how he was discovered or
arrested. 'Otro dia por la mañana, hecho su proceso contra
él, ambos los capitanes (Casas and Gonzalez) juntamente le
sentenciaron á muerte.' _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 460. 'Assi fenecio
su vida, por tener en poco su contrario.' _Gomara_, _Hist.
Mex._, 244. His brother, Antonio de Olid, sought justice
before the Consejo de Indias against Casas and Gonzalez for
the murder. _Herrera_, dec. iii. lib. x. cap. xi.
[XVII-26] In Estremadura.
[XVII-27] 'Halláronse ciento y diez hombres que dijeron que
querian poblar, y los demás todos dijeron que se querian ir
con Francisco de las Casas.' _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 460. See
also _Informe_, in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, ii.
131, 141. These did not comprise Gonzalez' followers, but may
have been all of Olid's and Casas' men who cared to remain in
Honduras; yet it seems strange that the latter should have
allowed so large a number to abandon a province which they
had been sent to occupy.
[XVII-28] Oviedo assumes that Casas would brook no rival
after his triumph, and made Gonzalez a prisoner, 'é llevólo
en grillos á la Nueva España.' iii. 188-9, 518. The last
assertion is even less likely. Affairs had meanwhile changed
in Mexico, and like Casas he fell into the hands of Cortés'
enemies, who were at first intent on their execution, but
ultimately sent both to Spain for trial. One of the charges
was the murder of Olid. Gonzalez was wrecked on Fayal Island,
but reached Seville in April, 1526, only to be confined in
the atarazana, or arsenal. Released on parole, as a knight
commander of Santiago, he returned to his home at Ávila, and
there died not long after, says Oviedo, deeply repentant of
his sins. _Dávila_, _Testimonio_, in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_,
_Col. Doc._, xii. 362-7.
[XVII-29] _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 245. A minority soon
after attempted to replace Medina by the alguacil Orbaneja.
_Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, ii. 133-5. Testimony
on the foundation of Trujillo, in _id._, xiv. 44-7.
[XVII-30] Herrera states that Ruano, who captured Gonzalez,
had gone to Cuba after Casas' triumph, but the testimony in
_Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc._, ii. 127, etc., shows
that he had been picked up by Moreno at San Gil.
[XVII-31] He himself being the probable captain. Some sixteen
slaves were kidnapped here, and the rest at San Gil. The
account of Moreno's proceedings, by different witnesses, is
to be found in _Informacion hecha por órden de Hernan Cortés
sobre excesos por Moreno_, in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col.
Doc._, ii. 127-79; and in _Relacion de los Oidores_, in _id._,
xiv. 39, etc. When the emperor learned of the kidnapping,
he angrily ordered the release of the slaves, and their good
treatment pending an investigation. _Herrera_, dec. iii. lib.
x. cap. xi. Cortés intimates that Ruano had used persuasion
with Moreno to obtain the command. _Cartas_, 462-3.
[XVIII-1] Herrera assumes stronger reasons, the arrival of
the supply vessel sent after Casas with the report that the
latter could not have escaped the storm which drove her back
to Mexico, and the rumored victory of Olid over both his
opponents. But it is pretty certain that Cortés heard nothing
of the latter affair, at least while he was in Mexico, dec.
iii. lib. v. cap. xiii.
[XVIII-2] The safety of Mexico was above other considerations;
the road to Honduras was unknown and full of danger; the
emperor would punish Olid. Such were the arguments used.
Cortés replied that unless prompt chastisement was inflicted
others would follow the example, and disorder must follow,
with loss to himself of respect and territory. The crown
officials demanded in the emperor's name that he should
remain. _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 245. Cortés yielded, and
wrote to the emperor that he had intended to march through
Guatemala but would remain, especially since he expected news
from Honduras within two months. _Carta_, Oct. 15, 1524. A
few days later he began his march.
[XVIII-3] _Cartas_, Sept. 3, 1526, 395-6.
[XVIII-4] In the letter from Honduras he says October 12, but
this very generally accepted date must be a misprint, since
in one of the two letters dated at Mexico within the following
three days, he writes to the emperor that he would not leave.
He could hardly dare to reveal that he had gone, while writing
that he was still at Mexico; but he was on the way before
November.
[XVIII-5] 'Sacó de aquí ciento y veinte de caballo y veinte
escopeteros y otros tantos ballesteros y gente de pié,'
besides 4,000 to 5,000 Indians. _Carta de Albornoz_, in
_Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, i. 485. A number of Spaniards
at least were added on the way to Goazacoalco, where review
was held, showing, according to Bernal Diaz, upward of 250
soldiers, beside arrivals from Spain, 130 being horsemen, and
3,000 warriors from different parts of the country, beside
servants of caciques. _Hist. Verdad._, 195-7. This agrees
with Gomara's 150 cavalry, 150 infantry, 3,000 warriors, and
a number of servant-women. _Hist. Mex._, 251. Cortés, at this
same review, mentions only 93 horsemen with 150 horses, and
30 and odd foot-soldiers. _Cartas_, 398.
[XVIII-6] Prescott, whose account of this famous expedition
and its connecting incidents, indicates both a want of
authorities and an imperfect study, mentions only the
sovereigns of Mexico and Tlacopan. Helps follows him. But
Gomara names also the king of Tezcuco, besides a number of
caciques, and gives their tragic fate, as does Ixtlilxochitl
with greater detail. _Horribles Crueldades_, 79.
[XVIII-7] Bernal Diaz names a number of the officers and staff
servants, as Carranza, mayordomo; Iasso, maestresala, or chief
butler; Salazar, chamberlain; Licenciado Pero Lopeza, doctor,
a vintner, a pantler, a butler, etc.; 2 pages with lances, 8
grooms, and 2 falconers; 5 musicians, etc.
[XVIII-8] Bernal Diaz relieves his feelings in a loud grumble,
which softens as he recalls the consolation to his pride in
being given for a time a petty command. _Hist. Verdad._, 197.
[XVIII-9] 'Y aun hasta Nicaragua ... y hasta dõde residia
Pedrarias.' _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 250.
[XVIII-10] See _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 337, 397.
[XVIII-11] The pueblos at the crossing-places are called
respectively Tonalan and Agualulco, written in different forms
even by the same authority.
[XVIII-12] Cortés calls the province Çupilcon, 35 leagues from
Espíritu Santo, a figure which may be correct by the line of
march. It was 20 leagues in length, and its extreme eastern
pueblo was Anaxuxuca.
[XVIII-13] Guezalapa, or Quetzatlapan.
[XVIII-14] Zagoatan, Zagutan, etc.
[XVIII-15] Ocumba was one of the pueblos discovered up the
river.
[XVIII-16] 'Estuvieron muy cerca de se ahogar dos ó tres
españoles,' is the prudent form in which Cortés disguises this
and other unpleasant facts to the emperor. _Cartas_, 404.
[XVIII-17] An anthropophagous Mexican was here burned alive,
as a warning against such indulgences; and a letter was given
to the leading cacique to inform other Spaniards that he
was a friend to the white man. _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 252;
_Herrera_, dec. iii. lib. vii. cap. viii.
[XVIII-18] Ascension is the name applied by Cortés to the
Gulf of Honduras. While on the way to the capital of Acalan,
a messenger came up with letters from Mexico, not of very late
date, however, and he was sent back from Izancanac. _Cortés_,
_Cartas_, 421-2.
[XVIII-19] The fate of the crew and vessels appears to have
been mixed up with the invented narrative of the general
disaster, and it was not till after Cortés' return to Mexico,
two years later, that inquiries were made which revealed their
fate. _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 196, 210. Albornoz,
one of the rulers appointed by Cortés over Mexico, relates
in a letter to the emperor, dated 15 December, 1525, that
according to reports from Xicalanco traders to Ordaz, the
party of Cortés had been killed seven to eight moons before,
in an island city, seven suns distant from Xicalanco, called
Cuzamelco. They had been surprised by night and slaughtered
with sword and fire. A number of captives had been reserved
for the table, but the flesh being found bitter of taste it
had been cast into the lake. _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, i.
485-6.
[XVIII-20] Zaguatapan, Huatipan, etc.
[XVIII-21] 'Y los arboles tan altos que no se podia subir en
ellos, para atalayar la tierra.' _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 253.
[XVIII-22] Cortés names Uzumazintlan, below, and Petenecque,
six leagues above, with three other pueblos beyond. _Cartas_,
412. Cortés gave presents in return, and made so forcible
an appeal in behalf of his creed, that many returned to burn
their idols. _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 254. Bernal Diaz states
that four foragers were killed on this river. _Hist. Verdad._,
198.
[XVIII-23] The natives reported two rivers, one very large,
and bad marshes, on the three days' road to Acalan. _Bernal
Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 198.
[XVIII-24] Apoxpalon, Apaspolon, etc.
[XVIII-25] Bernal Diaz states that he and Mejía led the party.
[XVIII-26] He was one of three Flemish monks who formed the
first special mission of friars to New Spain, arriving a year
before the famous twelve. _Torquemada_, iii. 424-5. His proper
name was De Toit.
[XVIII-27] 'Algunas oy permanezen (1701), y se llaman las
Puentes de Cortés.' _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, 40.
[XVIII-28] Bernal Diaz relates at length, with swelling pride,
how the great leader humbled himself to him. _Hist. Verdad._,
199. Sandoval dared not trust his own attendants with a secret
whereon depended his supper, but went in person with Diaz to
convoy it. The friars received liberal contributions from the
men, but the Indians were neglected, says Ixtlilxochitl, the
kings and caciques alone being given as a favor a little of
the maize set aside for the horses. _Horribles Crueldades_,
87.
[XVIII-29] Cortés writes Teutiercas, Tentacras; Gomara,
Teuticaccac; Herrera, Titacat.
[XVIII-30] Bernal Diaz's rather confused account states that
Cortés demanded bridges to be built, but was told that the
caciques of the different pueblos had first to be consulted.
Supplies being needed, Mazariegos was sent with 80 men in
canoes to different settlements to obtain supplies, and
found ready response. The next pueblo reached by the army was
deserted and without food. _Hist. Verdad._, 200. The above
seems doubtful.
[XVIII-31] The plan is said to have been imparted to
sympathizers in Mexico, with the recommendation to rise on
a certain day against the colonists. 'Y de aqui creyeron
muchos que naciò la fama de la muerte de Cortes.' _Herrera_,
dec. iii. lib. vii. cap. ix. For this uprising there was
opportunity enough, says Gomara, during the anarchy prevalent
during Cortés' absence; but the Indians were waiting further
orders from Quauhtemotzin. Finally their preparations aroused
the suspicions of the colonists, and they took precautions.
_Hist. Mex._, 250, 258. According to Cortés the Indians,
after killing the Spaniards, were to rouse Honduras and the
intermediate country ere they passed on to Mexico. All vessels
were to be seized, so as to prevent alarm from being given.
_Cartas_, 420.
[XVIII-32] Mexicaltzin, afterward baptized as Cristóbal, to
whom the conspirators, says Cortés, had promised a province
for his share of the spoil. _Cartas_, 420-1. Bernal Diaz
states that the revelation was made by two prominent caciques,
Tapia and Juan Velazquez, the latter captain-general under
Quauhtemotzin when he was ruler. _Hist. Verdad._, 200.
According to Ixtlilxochitl, the Indians were imitating the
Spaniards in the festivities which precede Lent, but in such
a manner as to arouse the suspicion of Cortés. One cause for
the enjoyment was a statement by Cortés that here they would
turn back to Mexico. The general called his spy Costemexi,
of Ixtapalapan or Mexicaltzinco, and bade him ascertain what
was going on. He soon returned to report that the three kings
and six courtiers had been engaged in a humorous dispute
as to which of the trio the now conquered provinces should
belong to. Tlacatecatl, one of the chief lords, thereupon
observed that if discord had brought about the fall of the
native empire, they had gained instead the supreme happiness
of instruction in the true faith. After this came tales and
songs. When tortured some years after by Prince Ixtlilxochitl,
the spy insisted that he had represented the case only as
above stated, but that Cortés chose to interpret it as a
malicious plot. _Horribles Crueldades_, 90-3. This version is
doubtful in its details, and for the reason that the author's
chief effort is to vindicate the natives. The cause for the
rejoicing at a return to Mexico from Acalan savors rather of
a promise from the conspirators than from Cortés.
[XVIII-33] The kings had formed it, and although they had not
been parties to it, yet as subjects they naturally desired
the liberty and weal of their lords. _Gomara_, _Herrera_,
_Cortés_, _Bernal Diaz_. The two former implicate the three
allied kings, the latter only the two of Mexico and Tlacopan.
[XVIII-34] The rest being spared, since they had been guilty
chiefly of listening to the plot, says Cortés; 'pero quedaron
procesos abiertos para que ... puedan ser castigados,' if
required. The execution took place within a few days of the
disclosure. _Cartas_, 421. Bernal Diaz, Herrera, and Gomara
agree. The latter adds that king Cohuanacoch, of Tezcuco, who
had also plotted, died some time before of bad food and water.
_Hist. Mex._, 274. Torquemada adds five caciques to the three
royal victims, according to the native version. i. 576.
[XVIII-35] _Hist. Verdad._, 200.
[XVIII-36] 'Por carnestollendas ... en Izancanac.' _Gomara_,
_Hist. Mex._, 258-9. On February 26, 1525, specifies
Vetancurt; on a Tuesday, three hours before dawn, adds
Ixtlilxochitl, who also declares that the native songs and
versions place it at Teotilac, and it certainly appears to
have been carried out before the capital was reached. The
Mexicans were so oppressed by hardships, says Bernal Diaz,
that they seemed to be quite indifferent; still, the Spaniards
hastened the departure for fear of an uprising. He places
the occurrence at a pueblo beyond Acalan. Ixtlilxochitl tells
another story. The kings were brought out three hours before
dawn for fear of a tumult. The two of Mexico and Tlacopan had
already been hanged, and Cohuanacoch was about to be, when his
brother, Ixtlilxochitl, being advised, rushed forth and called
upon the Indians. Perceiving the danger, Cortés cut the rope
and saved the half-strangled king of Tezcuco. He thereupon
proceeded to explain to Ixtlilxochitl the just reasons
which had brought about the execution. The prince appeared
convinced, and dismissed the auxiliaries, who stood ready
to fall upon the Spaniards. The chief motive, however, for
sparing them, was not the justice of the deed, for he regarded
it ever as a treacherous one, but the fear of wars that might
result from a revolt and carry desolation over his country,
checking the progress of the saving faith. Cohuanacoch, whom
Cortés accused as the chief conspirator, was carried with the
army in a hammock, suffering severely from the wrenching of
the noose. His grief brought about an intestinal hemorrhage,
from which he died within a few days. _Horribles Crueldades_,
98-4.
[XVIII-37] 'Y sin auer mas prouãças, Cortes mandò ahorcar
al Guatemuz, y al señor de Tacuba.... Y fue esta muerte que
les dieron muy injustamente dada, y pareciò mal a todos los
que ibamos aquella jornada.' _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._,
200. But his account of all this expedition is questionable,
and his testimony loses force through the evident fact that
he is carried away by sympathy for the kings, who had often
favored him, and for the natives to whom his later condition
in life bound him rather closely. He certainly admits the
strong accusation and the confirmatory admission of the
victims, the king of Tlacopan stating, for instance, that
he and Quauhtemotzin had declared one death preferable to
the daily deaths suffered. Torquemada adopts the version
of a Tezcucan manuscript, which relates that Cohuanacoch on
one occasion remarked to his royal confrères that, if they
chose to be disloyal, the Spaniards might have to regret
past injuries. Quauhtemotzin hastened to silence him by
observing that walls had ears, which might misunderstand
such expressions. A plebeian native reported them, and that
very night those who had been present at the conversation,
three kings and five caciques, were found hanging from a
ceiba-tree. Torquemada will not believe that the Indians
intended to revolt, especially since their country was now
divided, but that Cortés regarded the kings as a burden, i.
575-6. Cavo, _Tres Siglos_, i. 46-8, agrees, and Gomara even
intimates something to this effect in saying that Cortés
ought to have preserved so prominent and brave a captive to
point the triumph of his victories, but that the dangerous
circumstances must have prevented him. _Hist. Mex._, 259.
'Es notorio, que Quauhtemoc y los demás señores murieron
sin culpa, y que les levantaron falso testimonio.' Indeed,
continues Ixtlilxochitl, when the Indians complained to the
kings of maltreatment, they counselled submission. But his
story is so full of glaring misstatements and absurdities,
and so evident is the desire to relieve his kinsmen from
the traitor's brand, that he cannot be relied on. _Horribles
Crueldades_, 82, etc.; _Id._, _Relaciones_, _Kingsborough's
Mex. Antiq._, ix. 440, etc. Brasseur de Bourbourg follows him
implicitly of course, as he does almost any record from native
source. There was no witness except the spy, and the princes
were not allowed to defend themselves. _Hist. Nat. Civ._, iv.
608. He evidently pays no attention whatever to the Spanish
versions. Bustamante accepts even more implicitly the records
of those whom he prefers to regard as his ancestors. See his
edition of Gomara, _Chimalpain_, _Hist. Conq._, ii. 135-6.
Cano, who married the cousin and widow of Quauhtemotzin, calls
the execution of the three kings a murder, as may be expected
from his dislike of Cortés. _Oviedo_, iii. 549. Carried away
by hyperbolic flights of fancy, wherein he surpasses even
Solis himself, Salazar condemns the deed as based on false
testimony, and blames Cortés for irritating the natives by
resorting to so rash a measure. _Conq. Mex._, 240-3. Father
Duran emphasizes this with well-known sympathy for the native
cause. 'Y levantándose contra él algunos testigos falsos le
mandó á horcar.' _Hist. Ind._, MS., ii. 522. On imperfect
evidence and without a trial, says _Robertson_, _Hist. Am._,
ii. 138. Prescott sympathizes with Quauhtemotzin and regards
the testimony as insufficient, while Helps, _Cortés_, 208-9,
doubts the statements of Bernal Diaz, and refers to the act
as cruel practical wisdom. The chief ground for this view is
that Cortés, as an hidalgo, would not lie, and can therefore
be relied upon. It has not been my fortune to acquire such
faith, and I fancy that a closer study of his hero might
have changed Sir Arthur Helps' views. Alaman, a Mexican with
Spanish sympathies, believes in the conspiracy, but regards
the execution as a blot on Cortés. Quauhtemotzin, at least,
should have been sent to Spain after the fall of Mexico.
_Disert._, i. 214. This certainly would have been the best way
to secure and make use of him. Pizarro y Orellana, _Varones
Ilvstres_, 114-16, regards the evidence as clear and the
execution as just; so does Revilla, although his reasons are
not the best. _Solis_, _Conq. Mex._ (ed. 1843), 508.
[XVIII-38] It is not improbable that suspicions as to
the thoughts and acts of the kings may have created a
prejudice against them, but the suspicions existed already
before they left Mexico, as proved by their being taken
not only as hostages for the loyalty of their subjects,
but as a precaution against their own possible disloyalty.
Quauhtemotzin was evidently not the most submissive of men,
for he had always been regarded as requiring a close watch,
and Cortés brought him chiefly because of his 'bullicioso'
character, as he expresses it. It may not be considered
unpardonable for the Indian auxiliaries to relieve their
feelings in mutinous expressions against the taskmasters and
despoilers who were taking them away from home to meet an
unknown fate, to endure toil, hunger, and danger. But such
sentiments could not be overlooked in the kings. They, as
captured leaders, existed only by sufferance, the condition
being good behavior. For them even to listen was to encourage,
and they were consequently guilty. Not that I blame them.
Nay, I would rather blame them for not being more prompt
and determined in the patriotic effort. But in resolving to
listen, and to act, no doubt, they accepted a risk with a
penalty well defined among all peoples. Cortés was not the
man to hesitate at almost any deed when private or public
interests demanded it; and it needed but little to rouse to
blind fury the slumbering suspicions of the soldiers regarding
Mexican loyalty. But here we have evidence—not groundless
even from a native point of view—to justify the Spaniards
in assuming that a conspiracy, or, at least, mutinous talk,
was wide-spread, and this among a horde tenfold superior
in number; a horde known ever to have cherished unfriendly
feelings, and now doubly embittered by suffering. Under
the circumstances even saints would not have disregarded
testimony however doubtful; and the Castilians were but human.
Self-preservation, ay, duty to king, and country, and God,
whose several interests they were defending, demanded the
prompt suppression of so ominous a danger. What were the best
measures? A long campaign in Mexico had impressed Cortés with
the belief that a people so trained to abject subservience
as the Aztecs, and so bloody in their worship, could be
controlled by severity alone, and that the lesson must fall
on the leaders. Situated as they were the soldiers could
not be expected to guard a large number of captives. Hence
no course remained, except capital punishment. According to
Bernal Diaz, _Hist. Verdad._, 201, Cortés' distress of mind
at the sufferings of the expedition was so increased by this
deed that he became sleepless, and, in wandering around one
night in a temple forming the camp, he fell from a platform
a distance of ten feet, hurting his head severely.
[XVIII-39] On a watercourse falling into Términos. _Cortés_,
_Cartas_, 419.
[XVIII-40] 'Pueblos, ò Tierras de Venados.' _Villagutierre_,
_Hist. Conq. Itza_, 43. 'Provincia de Maçatlan, que en su
lengua dellos se llama Quiacho.' _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 422.
[XVIII-41] Called by Cortés Táica, Tahica, and Taiça, the
latter not incorrect perhaps, although Atitza or Tayasal may
be better.
[XVIII-42] This is probably Lake San Pedro, from which all the
fish were caught, over 1,000 in number. _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist.
Verdad._, 201.
[XVIII-43] 'Parescia brazo de mar, y aun así creo que lo es,
aunque es dulce.' _Cartas_, 427.
[XVIII-44] So write Bernal Diaz and Villagutierre. Pinelo,
_Relacion_, 1, 2, has it Taiza or Atitza. Two leagues from
shore, says Cortés, on an island known as Peten Itza, Peten
signifying island. Its present name is Remedios, and on
the ruins of the old pueblo has risen the town of Flores.
The name of Peten lives in that of the province. A romantic
account is given of the rise of this lake people. The Itzas
were a branch of one of the most ancient nations of Yucatan,
whose name had descended on them as followers of the hero-god
Itzamná. Chichen Itza, their capital, was once a centre of
power and wealth in the peninsula, but with the changing
fortunes of war came disunion, and in the beginning of the
15th century the feared Itzas had dwindled into a number of
petty principalities ruled by caneks. 'El Cazique à quien
comunmente llaman Canek.' _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yucathan_, 54.
It so happened that one of these fell in love, but found an
obstacle in a father, who awarded the object of his affections
to a more powerful chief. The canek was not to be thus easily
balked. He watched his opportunity, and on the wedding-day
broke in upon the festive assembly and carried off the bride.
Gathering his warriors, the disappointed rival prepared to
wreak vengeance and recover the prize. The Ilium of our hero
was not fitted to withstand such hosts, and he had no other
alternative than flight. Nor could his subjects hope to
escape desolation, and taking up the cause of their leader,
they followed him southward in search of a new home, safe
from the avenger. Guided by craggy ranges, the refugees came
to the smiling valley of Tayasal, with its island-studded
lake, bordered by verdure-clad slopes, beyond which rose
the shielding forest. Here indeed was a land of promise,
where, guarded by Itzamná, they might rear new generations to
perpetuate the name and traditions of their race. So runs the
story as related by chroniclers, although with their devout
frame of mind they give preference to another account, which
attributes the migration to the prophecies of their priests,
foretelling the coming of a bearded race, with a new faith,
to rule over the land. _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_,
29-31; _Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yucathan_, 507. See also _Native
Races_, ii. v., etc. The Itzas will be again spoken of in a
later volume.
[XVIII-45] 'Y que veria quemar los ídolos.' _Cortés_,
_Cartas_, 30. Which was done, adds Gomara; but this
Villagutierre will not allow. Idolatry rather increased, he
goes on to show. _Hist. Conq. Itza_, 50. Here three Spaniards,
two Indians, and one negro deserted, tired of the constant
hardship. _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 202.
[XVIII-46] When the conquerors entered a century later to
occupy the district, they found more than a score of stone
temples on the island alone, and in one of the principal
ones this idol. _Villagutierre_, _Hist. Conq. Itza_, 100-2;
_Cogolludo_, _Hist. Yucathan_, 55; _Native Races_, iii. 483.
[XVIII-47] Nuestra Señora de Marco. _Herrera_, dec. iii. lib.
viii. cap. i.
[XVIII-48] This was Medrano; 'Chirimia de la yglesia de
Toledo.' The victims are named. _Herrera_, dec. iii. lib.
viii. cap. i. Cortés also admits that great hunger was
suffered, yet the swine were only sparingly used.
[XVIII-49] 'Murieron sesenta y ocho caballos despeñados y
dejarretados,' etc. _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 433. Bernal Diaz is
less clear on this incident. Gomara follows Cortés, although
he says that the passage took only eight days, _Hist. Mex._,
263, and Herrera is the only one who enters into the losses
sustained in men, a number dying also of diarrhœa from
palm-cabbage. _Ubi sup._
[XVIII-50] Cortés describes even these crossings as quite
dangerous. The horses swam below the fall in the still water.
Three days were passed ere all the horses could crawl into
the camp, a league further. _Cartas_, 434.
[XVIII-51] 'Á 15 días del año de 1525.' _Id._; that is, April
15.
[XVIII-52] 'Habia diez dias que no comiamos sino cuescos
de palmas y palmitos.' 'Aun de aquellos palmitos sin sal no
teniamos abasto, porque se cortaban con mucha dificultad de
unas palmas muy gordas y altas, que en todo un dia dos hombres
tenian que hacer cortar uno, y cortado, le comian en media
hora.' _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 434, 439.
[XVIII-53] _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._, 202, 204;
_Juarros_, _Guat._, 326. Most authors confound Nito and San
Gil, and Prescott actually does so with Naco.
[XIX-1] Sixty men and twenty women left by Gonzalez. _Cortés_,
_Cartas_, 440. Forty Spaniards and four women, says Bernal
Diaz, _Hist. Verdad._, 204.
[XIX-2] 'De todos ellos no habia ocho para poder quedar en
la tierra.' _Cortés_, _Cartas_, _loc. cit._ Their captain,
Armenta, having refused to return with them to Cuba, they had
hanged him a few days before, and had elected Nieto, who was
ready to execute their wishes. _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._,
204.
[XIX-3] Montagua probably.
[XIX-4] Captain Marin found eight leagues off, on the
Naco road, a number of well-supplied villages, from which
provisions were forwarded. _Bernal Diaz_, _Hist. Verdad._,
204.
[XIX-5] Bought on credit from the owner, Anton de Carmona
or Camargo, says Bernal Diaz, who reduces the stock to seven
horses and forty hogs.
[XIX-6] A party had already been sent in this direction, but
they returned within ten days disheartened, throwing discredit
on the informants, who on their side accused the men of being
faint-hearted. _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 441-2.
[XIX-7] Eighty Spaniards had attacked a pueblo, but the
Indians returned in greater force and drove them off with some
wounded. _Cortés_, _Cartas_, 444.