_What took place in our camp after the departure of our agents to
his majesty with the gold and the letters; and the instance of
severity which Cortes was compelled to give._
The suspicions of Velasquez's adherents were again aroused at the
departure of our agents, and the following occurrence took place a few
days after. A conspiracy was set on foot by Pedro Escudero, Juan
Cormeno, Gonzalo de Umbria, a pilot, the priest Juan Diaz, Bernardino de
Coria, (who afterwards became a citizen of Chiapa, and was father of a
certain Centeno,) and some seamen of Gibraleon. All these were
excessively embittered against Cortes; some because he had refused to
grant them the promised discharge to return to Cuba; others because they
had lost their share of the gold by the present which had been sent to
the emperor; and the seamen because they could not forget the lashes
which he had given them on the island of Cozumel for stealing the
flitches of bacon. They had determined to seize upon one of our small
vessels, to sail to Cuba, and acquaint the viceroy Diego Velasquez that
he had merely to send to the Havannah and the possessions of Montejo in
order to capture our agents with all the riches. We concluded from this
that the conspirators had been counselled by persons of authority among
our officers, since they knew that Montejo, notwithstanding the strict
injunctions which he had received to the contrary, had landed at his
commendary. The affair was already so far advanced that the conspirators
had sent on board the necessary provisions of cassave-bread, oil, dried
fish, water, and such like, and were about to set sail, when one of
them, Bernardino de Coria, began to repent, called upon Cortes at
midnight, and discovered the whole plot to him.
Cortes first of all made an accurate inquiry into the names and number
of the conspirators, as also into the reasons and the way they intended
carrying out the plot; he then ordered the sails, the compass, and the
rudder to be taken from the vessel which was to have conveyed them. Upon
which he closely examined the conspirators, when they immediately made a
full confession, and mentioned the names of others who were implicated.
These names were for the present very prudently suppressed, and
proceedings were merely taken against those who stood most prominent in
the affair. A council of war having been held with all the usual
formalities, Pedro Escudero and Juan Cormeno[19] were sentenced to be
hung; the pilot Gonzalo de Umbria to have his feet cut off, and the
sailors to receive two hundred lashes each. If father Juan had not been
a priest he would likewise have shared a similar fate; as it was he
merely suffered for a time the dread of suspense which indeed must have
been terrible enough. I shall never forget how Cortes cried out, with a
sigh, and deeply affected, at the moment he signed the death-warrants:
"What a fortunate thing if I were unable to write; then should I neither
be able to sign a death-warrant!" This same exclamation likewise
frequently falls from judges who have to decide over life and death; in
which expression, however, they merely repeat the words of the barbarous
emperor Nero, when in the commencement of his reign he showed so goodly
a disposition.
The sentences being executed, Cortes immediately set out for Sempoalla,
having previously ordered that 200 men, with all our horse, should
follow him. The distance to this place was a good twenty miles. Pedro de
Alvarado was absent during this time, having three days beforehand been
sent with 200 men into the mountains in search of provisions, which were
extremely scarce. Orders were, therefore, left behind for him to march
to Sempoalla on his return, where arrangements would be made for our
further route to Mexico. Alvarado, consequently, was not present when
the executions took place.
[19] Torquemada (Mon., Ind. i, iv, c. 25) gives some additional
circumstances respecting this conspiracy; among other things he says,
that the pilot Cermeno was so remarkably nimble, that if two of the
tallest men held up a lance as high as they could horizontally, he would
bound over it with ease by means of another lance. Also that his sense
of smelling was so acute that he could scent the land at a distance of
sixty miles when at sea; but adds, "aunque no olio esta muerte;" yet he
could not smell the nature of his death. (p. 133.)