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

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

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

CHAPTER CLXX

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

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

No bird like this was ever born,

As a servant I have no second,

And you have not your equal in the world.

Cortes therefore determined to forward all this treasure to his majesty in Spain, and commissioned a nobleman of Toledo, named Diego de Soto to be the bearer: whether Juan de Ribera, who squinted with one eye, and had been Cortes' private secretary, accompanied this gentleman, I cannot exactly remember; but one thing I know, that very little reliance could be placed in his honesty. I also imagined that he played falsely at cards and cheated at dice; besides which he possessed many other bad qualities. I merely mention all this because he behaved so villanously to Cortes in Spain, for he not only kept back the money which the latter confided to his care for his father Martin Cortes,⁴³ but he repaid kindness with ingratitude, and so far forgot all the favours which Cortes had bestowed upon him, that, instead of speaking good of our general, or even the truth, he calumniated his benefactor in every possible manner. As this Ribera was a man who possessed considerable eloquence, and as he had been private secretary to Cortes, his aspersions were generally credited in Spain, by the bishop of Burgos in particular; and he created the more evil, as at that time Narvaez, Christobal de Tapia, and the agents of Velasquez had renewed their charges against Cortes, complaining to his majesty that he could not depend upon the honesty of the decision to which the commissioners had come, as Cortes had bribed them all with valuable presents. All this created a most unfavorable change in Cortes' affairs, and he fell so greatly into his majesty's displeasure that matters, in all likelihood, would have terminated most unfavorably for him if the duke of Bejar, who was greatly attached to Cortes, had not employed his utmost endeavours for him and become his bail until he should be summoned to take his trial in due form. The duke's reason for espousing Cortes' cause so warmly was, because the preliminaries of a marriage had been settled between the latter and a niece of the duke. This lady's name was Juana de Zunniga, daughter to the earl of Aguilar Don Carlos de Arellano, and she had also a brother who was a great favorite with the emperor. As about this time also the 80,000 pesos, with the other valuable presents arrived in Spain, accompanied by letters from Cortes, in which he expressed to his majesty his thanks for the great honours which his majesty had bestowed upon him, and for the just sentence he had pronounced in his favour; the inquiries which were going to be instituted against him were dropped, and the storm which was gathering over him blew over. But now again the proud inscription which he had placed on the silver field-piece created a great deal of ill-feeling towards him, and several of the dukes, marquisses and earls, who had likewise rendered great services to our emperor, considered it amazingly presumptuous that Cortes should attempt, by this inscription, to raise his merits so far above all others. Even his greatest patrons, the admiral of Castile, the duke of Bejar, and the earl of Aguilar, greatly disapproved of this self-praise.⁴⁴ But why, I ask, should they term this presumptuous in our general? Can any one mention to me another general who has accomplished so many heroic deeds as Cortes, or who has conquered for our emperor a country of the magnitude of New Spain, or who has been the means of converting so many thousands of heathens to Christianity? Though, to be sure, the merit and glory of all this is not due to Cortes alone, but also to his brave companions in arms! We have equally merited for ourselves grants of land and honorable escutcheons, with those brave men of former times who were so honoured by their monarchs!

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

While all this was going on in Spain, Cortes was very busily employed in rebuilding the city of Mexico, and he strove by every possible means to increase its population by holding out rewards to the inhabitants of the country to settle there. For this purpose he declared the town free from all tribute, until all the buildings should be completed, the causeways, aqueducts and bridges repaired, and the churches and the hospitals were entirely finished both inside and out.⁴⁵ The superintendence of the latter he gave to the excellent father Olmedo, who had already brought together all the Indians who were suffering from ill health, and attended to them with the most affectionate care. But about this time there likewise arrived in Vera Cruz twelve Franciscan monks from Spain, who were accompanied by the very pious father, Martin de Valencia, whom his holiness had appointed vicar-general of New Spain. He was a native of the village of Valencia de san Juan, in the district of Campo, and we shall see in the following chapter how this reverend father was received in Mexico.

CHAPTER CLXXI

How twelve monks of the order of St. Francis, with the vicar-general and father-superior Martin de Valencia, arrive at Vera Cruz, and how they are received by Cortes.

The reader will remember my mentioning in a former chapter that we begged of his imperial majesty to send to New Spain some really good and pious monks of the Franciscan order, that they might assist us to convert the Indians to Christianity, and preach the doctrine of our holy faith to them, in which father Olmedo had made so good a beginning. Cortes and the whole of us Conquistadores had also on the same occasion written to the general of the Franciscan order, who was afterwards the cardinal, brother Francisco de los Angeles, and begged of him to send us some very pious men of his order, that we might be enabled to fulfil our promise to the Indians, whom we had so often assured that the emperor would despatch to them religious men, who led a much more pious life than we did. This we had repeatedly told the Indians, and they always inquired of us in return if those men would possess the same good qualities as father Olmedo. To which we answered in the affirmative.

It was in compliance with this, our request, that the general of the Franciscan order sent the twelve monks, with their superior, who arrived in Vera Cruz. Among these religious men was also the father Toribio Motalma, to whom the caziques and distinguished personages of Mexico gave the name of Motolinia,⁴⁶ which signifies the poor brother, because he distributed everything he received among the Indians; so that it often happened he had nothing left to still his hunger. He was always clad in the meanest garments, went barefoot, and was continually preaching to the Indians, who became greatly attached to him, and they revered him as a holy person.

When Cortes received intelligence of the arrival of these reverend personages in Vera Cruz, he gave orders that they should be received with the profoundest respect in every town they passed through on their road to Mexico, whether Indian or Spanish. If they halted at a distance from any habitations, huts were to be constructed for them; in every township they came to the bells were to be rung, the whole of the inhabitants were to go out to meet them with crosses, wax lights, and flying colours; and in order to give the Indians some notion of humility and veneration, the Spaniards were particularly instructed to fall down on their knees before them, and to kiss their hands and their cowls.

Besides all this, Cortes sent refreshments for these monks to every stage along their route, and wrote most affectionate letters to them. When they had arrived within a short distance from Mexico, Cortes himself, accompanied by father Olmedo, and the whole of his brave officers and men, went out to meet them; as also Quauhtemoctzin, lord of Mexico, with the most distinguished Mexicans, and a great number of other caziques from the principal townships. As soon as we beheld these pious men, Cortes and all the rest of us dismounted, and walked up to them; and the first who went down on his knees before Francisco de Valencia was our general himself; but when he was going to kiss the reverend father's hand, the latter would not allow him, and Cortes then only kissed his cowl.

The meeting between father Olmedo and the newly-arrived was of the most affectionate kind, and they embraced each other most heartily; then we officers and soldiers, with Quauhtemoctzin, and the other caziques, likewise knelt down before them, and kissed their garments.

Cortes' respectful conduct towards these monks made a deep and astonishing impression on the Mexican monarch, and the other grandees of the country; and it served as an excellent precept to all Indians, when they beheld the man whom they almost feared, and revered as a god, humble himself before these religious men, and stand in their presence with his head uncovered. In the presence of men who came without any covering to their feet, their garments of the meanest kind, their appearance altogether poverty stricken, and their countenances emaciated, besides that they came on foot, and not on horseback; all this amazed the Indians, who ever after throughout the whole country paid the greatest veneration to these men.

Our reverend guests were quartered in a house which had been purposely prepared for their reception; and father Olmedo, at the desire of Cortes, acted as their host.

About four years afterwards twelve other monks of the Dominican order arrived in New Spain, with their provincial or prior, father Thomas Ortiz, a native of Biscay, and who had been prior in a cloister near Punta del Drago, but unfortunately he and his companions were unable to bear the hot climate; for they all fell ill, and most of them died; however, I will relate these circumstances more fully in the proper place. Subsequently several other very pious and excellent men of this same order arrived from Spain, who were particularly assiduous in their endeavours to convert the Indians of Guatimala to Christianity.

With all this, Cortes' mind was never at ease, and he constantly apprehended that the bishop of Burgos and the agents of Diego Velasquez would renew their complaints against him to his majesty, or injure him in some way or other; and as his father, with Diego de Ordas, sent him the most favorable account of their progress in settling the preliminaries of marriage between himself and Doña Juana de Zunniga, he considered it would be great policy on his part to send all the gold he could possibly collect to Spain, partly to convince the duke of Bejar of the riches he possessed, and of the magnitude of his conquests, but particularly to ingratiate himself further with his majesty to obtain additional honours and favours from him.

CHAPTER CLXXII

How Cortes sends his majesty 30,000 pesos worth of gold, with an account of the conversion of the Indians, the rebuilding of the city of Mexico, and of the expedition of Christobal de Oli to the Honduras; also how the vessel which conveyed this gold at the same time carried secret letters to Spain, written by the royal accountant Rodrigo de Albornoz, in which Cortes and the whole of the veteran Conquistadores were calumniated in the vilest manner.

After Cortes had been appointed governor of New Spain, he considered himself called upon to give his majesty a circumstantial account of what was going on in the country; of the conversion of the Indians, the rebuilding of the city of Tenochtitlan-Mexico, and of other important circumstances; among which he mentioned, in the first place, the expedition he had sent to Honduras, and he was very particular in bringing under his majesty's notice the great expenses to which it had put him. He then went on to state that he had conferred the chief command of this armament on Christobal de Oli, who had allowed himself to be bribed by Diego Velasquez to make common cause with him, and renounce all further obedience to Cortes.

Our general then told his majesty that he was determined, if his majesty should think proper, to despatch another officer to the Honduras, to deprive Oli of the command, and cast him into chains; but if he resisted, he would himself march against him. A severe punishment, continued Cortes, ought to be inflicted in this instance, in order to deter other officers who were sent out to subdue other provinces from following Oli's example. He must therefore earnestly supplicate his majesty's permission to march against this officer.

In these despatches Cortes preferred other much heavier charges against Diego Velasquez, not only with regard to having bribed Oli to revolt, but on account of the many conspiracies which he had caused to be formed against his life during the expeditions to the rebellious provinces, and, upon the whole, for having attempted to disturb the peace of the country, which had obliged him to punish the more guilty ones with the utmost rigour of the law. He then went on to say that he would have been able to forward his majesty a much larger sum on this occasion than 30,000 pesos, if the revolutionary spirit which his enemies strove to increase on all sides had not thrown obstacles in his way, and thereby impeded his operations. Our general concluded by assuring his majesty he would take every opportunity of sending as much gold as he possibly could to Spain.

Cortes at the same time wrote to Diego de Ordas, to his father, and to his relative, the licentiate Francisco Nuñez, who was reporter to the royal council, giving them a full account of the conduct of Rodrigo de Albornoz; how this man secretly calumniated him in Mexico, because he had omitted to give him as great a number of Indians as he had required, and had refused to give him the daughter of the king of Tezcuco in marriage, for whom he had contracted a better match with a gentleman of quality; besides which he had been informed that this Albornoz had been secretary to the bishop of Burgos in Flanders, and that he was a perfect creature of this prelate. He constantly kept up a secret correspondence with some one or other, even by means of figures, and Cortes thought it most likely that he had on this occasion secretly written to his patron the bishop, and slandered him in every possible manner; he therefore cautioned his friends to be upon their guard, and narrowly to watch his interests, for Cortes thought the bishop was at that time still president of the council of the Indies.

In consequence of these apprehensions, Cortes sent duplicate copies of all his despatches, so that if one set were seized at Seville by the bishop's functionaries, the other might arrive safe in the proper hands.

The accountant Albornoz had indeed, as it proved, forwarded letters by this same vessel to his majesty, to the bishop of Burgos, and to the royal council of the Indies, in which he renewed all the late accusations against our general, adding besides several new ones: among others, he assured his majesty that Cortes levied vast quantities of gold upon the caziques, under the pretext of forwarding it to his majesty; thereby occasioning great discontent throughout the whole country. He had assembled a considerable number of the distinguished females of the country, in order to marry them to his Spanish soldiers; but if honorable men requested any one of them in marriage, he was sure to refuse them, and retained them rather as his own mistresses. The caziques of the country in general looked upon him as a king; in fact, they knew of no other king than Cortes, who took to himself an equal fifth of the whole revenue of the country with the emperor, and he had amassed immense treasures to himself. Yet he was so artful, that it was impossible to divine his plans. He was building large fortresses, and it might be his intention to declare his independence of the Spanish crown, and turn traitor to his own country. It was, at all events, high time for his majesty to adopt some decisive step to prevent this, and despatch some personage of distinction to New Spain, in order to deprive Cortes of the chief command, and of all sovereign power in the country.

Besides this, Albornoz slandered Cortes in various other ways, and the bishop of Burgos determined to profit by it; and as Narvaez, Tapia, and the agents of Diego Velasquez still continued their solicitations at court, the bishop strenuously urged them to renew their accusations against Cortes, and he strove to add further weight to their complaints by the accounts which had just been received from Albornoz.

After his majesty had read these severe charges against our general, he considered they were all true, and he said to Narvaez, who was spokesman for the rest: "I am now determined that Cortes shall be punished! Though he may send me a quantity of gold, yet the accusations that are brought against him are becoming too frequent, and I love justice before all the treasures he can procure me."

His majesty did not long delay to carry out his threats, for he despatched orders to the admiral of St. Domingo to repair at the head of 600 men to Mexico, to seize Cortes' person, and if he found him guilty to cut off his head without any further ceremony, and to punish all those who assisted in the defeat of Narvaez. The emperor, in order to spur the admiral on to fulfil his commands, even promised to appoint him admiral of New Spain.

The admiral duly received these commands, but either from want of money to fit out an armament sufficiently extensive for this purpose, or whether he considered it a hazardous enterprise, he continually delayed to act up to the emperor's commands. Certain it is, however, that his friends cautioned him against Cortes' good fortune in arms, who, with a handful of men, had defeated the large body of troops under Narvaez, and they likewise assured him that he would not find Cortes or his companions in arms guilty of anything wrong, but in every sense loyal and faithful servants of his majesty. To all this was added, that it had been observed to the emperor what a very distinguished appointment admiral of New Spain would be, and that it was too great a reward to bestow on any one for a mere expedition of this nature.

In the meantime while the admiral of St. Domingo was making preparations for fitting out this armament, Cortes' agents, his father Martin Cortes and father Melgarejo de Urrea, got information of all that was going forward, and they no longer doubted from the letters they received from Cortes himself, that the accountant Albornoz, or others of his enemies, had been secretly plotting against him at court. These gentlemen, therefore, called upon the duke of Bejar, to whom they gave a full account of all the circumstances, and then laid before him Cortes' own letters. When the duke saw how perilous the posture of affairs looked, and how necessary it was to lend immediate assistance, he repaired to his majesty without delay, accompanied by several of his distinguished relatives, Martin Cortes, and father Melgarejo. After paying to his majesty the deep respect which was due from them to their sovereign and master, the duke humbly begged his majesty not to put any faith in what the accountant Albornoz might say, who was the avowed enemy of Cortes, and that his majesty would be pleased to countermand the orders he had given to the admiral of St. Domingo, at least if less suspicious witnesses than the accountant Albornoz did not come forward against Cortes. As his majesty, continued the duke, was a monarch who loved justice above all things, it was necessary to be doubly precautious in taking proceedings against Cortes and his companions in arms, who had rendered those services to their monarch, of which history could not produce another example. He himself still continued to place implicit confidence in the loyalty of Cortes towards his majesty, and in the same way as he had previously offered to answer for Cortes with his head, he was now quite ready to do the same again, and to stake the whole of his possessions in the bargain. After the duke had thus declared himself to the emperor, he gave his majesty an account of the letters which Cortes had written to his own father, in which he had explained the reasons of Albornoz's hatred to him. He then reminded his majesty of the vast quantities of gold which Cortes had forwarded to Spain, and of the many and great services he had altogether rendered to the crown, and brought forth excellent arguments in justification of Cortes' conduct. His majesty was so far convinced of the sound reasoning of the duke, that he determined to despatch to New Spain a man of high rank, distinguished talents, and of an unblemished character, there thoroughly to investigate the matter on the spot itself.

The imperial court was at that time in Toledo, of which town a cavalier and licentiate, named Luis Ponce de Leon, a cousin to the corregidor, earl Don Martin de Cordoba, was then the vice-regidor. It was on this gentleman that his majesty's choice fell, and Ponce de Leon accordingly received the important commission to repair, without delay, to New Spain, there to make the strictest inquiries into the accusations which had been made against Cortes, and if he found him guilty to punish him according to the utmost rigour of the law.

The licentiate Luis Ponce de Leon promised his majesty to employ his utmost endeavours to bring the truth of the matter to light, and made preparations for his journey to the New World; but he did not leave Spain till two and a half years after, so that I shall subsequently again have to recur to these circumstances. Nor did we receive any information from Cortes' father of what had taken place in Spain until after this time had elapsed. For the rest, Albornoz continued regularly to despatch his slanders to the emperor, and even did not spare the viceroy himself, Don Antonio de Mendoza, a man of exalted mind, worthy of the most grateful remembrance, and whose name will be ever glorious. However spotless the government of this gentleman might be, however honest in his distribution of justice, yet this Albornoz presumed to slander him to the emperor, and this merely because they were not upon good terms with each other. Subsequently all the charges which Albornoz had made against Cortes became known to this excellent viceroy, but he contented himself by merely ordering Albornoz into his presence, and laying before him the slanderous letters which he had written; he said to him with his usual mildness and composure of countenance: "Since you are so accustomed to write to his majesty, do not write falsehood, and thereby wantonly precipitate others into ruin!" Albornoz, as may easily be imagined, stood quite confounded and abashed.

I must now relate how Cortes, ignorant at that time of the secret machinations of his enemies at the imperial court, sent out an armament against Christobal de Oli.