Bernal Diaz del Castillo
The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 2 (of 2)
Here our agents closed the defence; and as the complainants had nothing further to say, and the pleadings of both parties had lasted five days, the commission closed the court, and retired to deliberate on their verdict, which ran as follows:
The commissioners were of opinion that Cortes and the other true and only Conquistadores of New Spain had on every occasion proved themselves loyal and faithful servants of his majesty. Great good fortune had certainly attended all their undertakings, but the courage and intrepidity which they had displayed in the terrible and bloody battles with the Indians, the victory which they gained over the large body of troops under Narvaez with a handful of men, fully merited this good fortune. The commissioners declared that Velasquez was not justified in commencing his suit respecting the government of New Spain; but that he was at liberty to sue Cortes in the proper law courts for the monies he had expended in fitting out the armament.
They confirmed the pope's appointment of Cortes as governor of New Spain; every division of land which he had made should stand good, and further power should be granted to him to distribute the lands in future, according to the best of his judgment; as it was quite evident that in everything he had done up to the present moment he had strove to promote the service of God, and the best interests of his majesty; and it was therefore to be supposed he would continue to do so in future.
With respect to the accusations brought against Cortes concerning Garay's death, the commissioners could not pronounce judgment at present, but would thoroughly investigate this matter on some future occasion: neither could they at present come to any decision with regard to Narvaez's charge that his papers had been taken away from him, as the defendant Alonso de Avila was then a prisoner in France; but they would apply to the French king for his release in order to examine him. With respect to the pilot Umbria and the soldier Cardenas, the commissioners would petition his majesty to grant them each a commendary in New Spain that would produce them an annual rent of 1000 pesos.
With regard to the Conquistadores themselves, they would propose that lucrative commendaries should be bestowed upon them all, and that they should take precedence in the churches and in all other places.
These several decisions were then drawn up in proper form, and despatched to the royal court at Valladolid to receive his majesty's confirmation.
His majesty not only confirmed the decision to which the commissioners had come, but issued other royal letters by which Cortes was empowered to banish from New Spain all deserters and those Spaniards who strolled about the country like vagabonds, as they obstructed the conversion of the Indians to Christianity. Further, all lawyers were forbidden to settle in New Spain for a certain number of years to come, for they only created lawsuits, quarrels, and dissensions among the inhabitants.
These royal letters were given at the court of Valladolid on the 17th of May, in the year one thousand five hundred and so many years,41 countersigned by the above commissioners, by Don Garcia de Padilla, and by the royal secretary Don Francisco de los Cobos, who subsequently became comendador-mayor of Leon. Besides all this, his majesty wrote letters to Cortes and all of us the veteran Conquistadores, in which he expressed his unqualified satisfaction with the great and excellent services we had rendered the crown.
About this time also, Ferdinand king of Hungary and king of the Romans wrote a letter to Cortes, in which he thanked him for the beautiful present of gold ornaments and jewels which he had sent him, adding, that he had heard, with much pleasure, of the great services he had above all things rendered to God, and then to his master and brother the emperor, and to the whole of Christendom, and that he should feel happy at all times to promote his interests with the emperor. Thus much he thought himself indebted to a man who possessed so many noble qualities, and who had rendered himself so meritorious; in like manner he wished to express his high esteem for his brave companions in arms.
This letter besides passed many high encomiums on the Conquistadores, and I still remember that it was signed with the words, I the king and Infante of Castile, countersigned by the private secretary Castillejo. I read the letter myself two or three times at Mexico, for Cortes shewed it to me in order to convince me of the great esteem in which we the true Conquistadores were held by his majesty.
As soon as these royal mandates and letters had been put into the hands of our agents, they despatched them in all haste to Mexico by a cousin of Cortes named Rodrigo de Paz, who was accompanied by Francisco de las Casas, a nobleman of Estremadura, and also a relative of our general. These gentlemen embarked in an excellent sailing vessel, and had a most favorable voyage. They stopped on their way at Cuba, and there, under sound of trumpet, published the decision which his majesty had come to in favour of Cortes, and they then demanded of Velasquez an account of the monies which had been expended in fitting out the armament. The governor of Cuba, however, took the unfavorable termination of his suit so to heart, that he fell ill and died shortly after very poor and unhappy.
In order to save myself the trouble of recurring to these matters, I must observe that Francisco de Montejo and Diego de Ordas did not forget to profit by their stay at the imperial court, and their endeavours proved very successful. Montejo was appointed governor and chief-justice of Yucatan and Cozumel, and was allowed to assume the Don before his name; and Diego de Ordas was confirmed in his New Spanish possessions, received a commendary of the order of St. Jago, and was allowed to assume the volcano of Huexotzinco in his escutcheon.
After these high honours had been conferred upon them, both these gentlemen returned to Mexico, though Ordas, after a lapse of three years, again returned to Spain, and obtained permission from the emperor to subdue the country on the river Marannon; he accordingly fitted out an armament for this purpose, but lost both his property and his life in the expedition.
When the bishop of Burgos found that everything had terminated in our favour, and heard of the great honours which his majesty had bestowed upon Cortes and upon all the Conquistadores, he naturally concluded that the gentlemen who had formed the commission of inquiry must have soon seen through all his doings with the governor of Cuba, and have been convinced that he had kept back all the gold which we had sent for his majesty to Spain, and that he had suppressed all mention of the great services we had rendered to the crown. These reflections preyed so hard upon his mind, that, like his creature Diego Velasquez, he fell dangerously ill, in which miserable state he had the additional vexation to see his nephew Don Alonso de Fonseca appointed to the archbishopric of Santiago, on which he had himself calculated.
I must now return to Rodrigo de Paz and Francisco de las Casas, who were sent to New Spain with the despatches containing Cortes' appointment of governor. They made their entry into Mexico in the most splendid manner, after which feasts and rejoicings took place, and couriers were despatched to every part of the country where Spaniards resided, to spread the happy news.
The gentlemen who had brought these despatches, and other persons who had accompanied them from Medellin were not forgotten by Cortes. Francisco de las Casas he appointed a captain, and afterwards bestowed upon him the productive township of Anguitlan. Rodrigo de Paz was likewise presented with extensive and lucrative commendaries, besides that Cortes appointed him his private secretary and major-domo. This man gained so much influence that he ruled all those about him, and even Cortes himself. There was not a single person who had come to New Spain with Rodrigo de Paz on this occasion that was not handsomely rewarded; even the captain of the vessel in which they had arrived received so large a sum of money from Cortes that he returned to Spain a rich man.
I must now answer some questions which were put to me by a few gentlemen who had read this account; namely, how I, who was at that time in the interior of New Spain, and certainly occupied very differently than in relating what was going on in the other hemisphere, could vouch for the truth of what I had written of the occurrences which then took place in Spain; of the declaration of his holiness, of the accusations which were preferred against Cortes, and his defence before the royal commission by our agents, and of other matters?
My answer to them was, that, besides myself, the whole of my companions the veteran Conquistadores were duly informed of every circumstance. We had only to read the four or five accounts which our agents despatched to us in New Spain, to convince us how warmly they had our interest at heart; though I indeed remarked, as soon as I had perused these despatches, that all the endeavours of our agents were only exerted in behalf of Cortes and of themselves, and that we others, who had undergone all the fatigues and perils to place Cortes in that high and meritorious position, would have to toil to the last day of our lives. However, we must pray to God mercifully to remember us, and to instil the thoughts into our emperor's mind likewise of rewarding us according to our merits, which we may fully hope for from his majesty, who is so good a catholic.
CHAPTER CLXIX
Of Cortes' plans after he had obtained the appointment of governor of New Spain; the way in which he distributes the Indians; and of other matters.
I and other of the most experienced and deserving of the veteran Conquistadores had always made sure that, as soon as Cortes should receive the appointment of governor of New Spain, he would remember the day when he set sail from Cuba, and that he would bring back to his mind the great troubles by which he was immediately after surrounded, and that he would have remembered all those of the men who, soon after he had landed with his troops in New Spain, had procured him the appointment of captain-general and chief justice of the country, and have borne in mind that we never for a moment left his side in all the subsequent battles and dangers. By heavens! he ought never to have forgotten any one of us, – we who always took his part, who exerted ourselves to the utmost for him on the occasion when a portion of the troops clamoured to return to Vera Cruz, and strove hard to persuade him to abandon all thoughts of the campaign against Mexico, on account of the vast power of this state and the great strength of its metropolis. We were the same men who marched with him into Mexico, who assisted him in taking the powerful Motecusuma prisoner in the midst of his warriors, who lent him such efficient aid against Narvaez, and then instantly marched back with him to Mexico to the assistance of Alvarado; the same men who fought the terrific battles on the disastrous retreat from this city, and who had to mourn the loss of so many of their brave companions on that night of sorrows; the men by whose valour the memorable battle was gained on the plains of Otumpan; who again put down the insurrections in the provinces, conquered all the large townships which lay around the lake, and subdued the country; who rallied round his person when a conspiracy was set on foot by Villafaña and others to put him to death; who patiently endured the indescribable fatigues and hardships of the ninety-three days' siege of Mexico, during which time we had night and day encountered the attacks of an infuriated enemy until at length we placed him in possession of that strong city. We remained faithful to him when Christobal de Tapia arrived in New Spain with the appointment of governor. We wrote three several times to his majesty in praise of the great services he had rendered to the crown, extolling his loyalty to the skies, and begging of his majesty to confer upon him the appointment of governor. I will not even mention the many other great services which we rendered to our general; but certainly, after he had obtained the government of New Spain, he ought to have remembered the brave and courageous men who also, subsequent to the conquest of Mexico, made those severe campaigns to Colima, Zacatula, and Panuco, and those of the troops who from extreme poverty were obliged to relinquish the settlement founded by Alvarado at Tutepec.
We had altogether shared badly in the division of the Indians, and miserable districts of the country had been allotted to us, although his majesty had so often desired Cortes to reward our meritorious conduct, and to give us the preference in all matters. In all his letters which he wrote to his agents in Spain he ought never to have omitted mentioning our names with unbounded praise, and ought to have made it a point of obtaining from his majesty, for ourselves and children, the preference in all official appointments in New Spain: but he never gave this a thought; and on both occasions, the one when he obtained the appointment of governor, and the other when he went to Spain himself and became Marquis of Oaxaca, he only strove to further his own ends, and he forgot his brave companions in arms. Indeed, the most sensible and intelligent of the Conquistadores were quite of opinion that nothing would have been juster on the part of Cortes, and nothing more practicable at that time, than to have divided the whole of New Spain into five equal parts: one fifth, containing the best townships, to have been set apart for the crown; a second fifth for the churches, hospitals, and cloisters, and for gifts which his majesty might think proper of bestowing on those men who had distinguished themselves in the Italian campaigns or elsewhere; the three remaining fifths to have been divided among the whole of the true Conquistadores, according to their respective stations and merits, and this in perpetuity. At that time his majesty would have consented to such a division, as the whole of the conquest of New Spain never cost the crown anything, and his majesty himself had altogether a very imperfect notion of the country. Besides which, his majesty was then still in Flanders, and would have been pleased to know the country was in the hands of such faithful and courageous subjects.
But nothing of all this ever entered Cortes' mind, while our condition was daily growing worse; and at present there are even many of us veteran Conquistadores who have not the common necessaries of life! What will become of our children which we shall leave behind? But enough of all this; let us now see to whom Cortes distributed the townships.
The first persons who were rewarded by the governor were Francisco de las Casas and Rodrigo de Paz, with the royal factor, the inspector, and treasurer, who had come from Spain with those gentlemen. Then came a certain Avalos, and one Saavedra, both relatives of Cortes. Next follow Barrios, who was married to his sister-in-law Doña Xuarez; a certain Alonso Lucas, Juan and Luis de la Torre, Alonso Valiente, and the squinting Ribera. But these are only a few instances; for a person had only to come from Medellin,42 or to stand in favour with some great personage, and flatter Cortes a little, and he was presented with some of the best lands in New Spain. I am not going to reproach Cortes for having remembered all these people, for there was plenty to do all this with, but certainly he should have given the preference to his soldiers, as he had been recommended to do by his majesty; to those men through whose assistance he was elevated to that high station. Whenever any campaign was in contemplation, or any battles to be fought, he never for an instant forgot where every individual man of us was to be found, and his commands to march to the field of battle never failed to reach us. But I will put an end to my complaints of the neglect which we suffered, for now it cannot be remedied.
Though I must not forget to mention how conscious Cortes was of the injustice which he had done us, and that he even acknowledged it. After the death of Luis Ponce de Leon and of Marcos de Aguilar soon after, whom the former, as will be seen in the proper place, appointed his successor in the government, myself, with several officers and cavaliers of the veteran Conquistadores called upon Cortes, and begged of him, conformably to his majesty's commands, to give us some of the numerous Indians which fell to his share on that occasion. To this he replied, that we fared no worse than he himself did. "But," added he, "if his majesty should again be pleased to appoint me governor of New Spain, upon my conscience, I will repair the neglect you have suffered at my hands, and will bestow the best commendaries on those for whom his majesty intended them. You may depend upon it I will make good the great errors I have committed."
With these fine words and flattering promises he thought to satisfy the old and tried Conquistadores.
A little before Cortes received the appointment of governor, the new officers of the crown arrived in Mexico: these were Alonso de Estrada, of Ciudad Real, as royal treasurer; as factor, Gonzalo de Salazar; as accountant, Rodrigo de Albornoz, of Paladinos, (Julian de Alderete having died a short time previously); as veedor, Pedro Almindez Chirinos, a native of Ubeda, or of Baëza, besides many others.
About this time Rodrigo Rangel, although he was neither present at the siege of Mexico nor in many of the great battles we fought in New Spain, all of a sudden got it into his head that he must also reap some glory to himself; he therefore begged of Cortes to give him a small body of troops in order to put down the rebellion which had arisen among the Zapotec townships, and also that Pedro de Ircio might be allowed to join the expedition in order to support him with his good counsel. Cortes very well knew what kind of man Rangel was; that he was not fit for any kind of service, as he constantly suffered from ill health. He was gouty, had large swellings in his groins, was covered all over with sores, and so debilitated in strength that he could scarcely move along on his thin ulcerated legs. Cortes consequently refused this man his unreasonable request, representing to him what a ferocious people the Zapotecs were, and how excessively difficult it was to subdue a people like this who inhabited rugged mountains covered with eternal mists; that no cavalry could penetrate into their country, or, at most, they were wholly useless there; how, owing to the narrow and steep mountain paths, his men would only be able to march one abreast, and then with great risk of their lives, from the slippery state of the ground, which was covered with perpetual dew. For an expedition of this nature, continued Cortes, the most experienced and robust of soldiers were required, who thoroughly understood the art of war. Rangel, however, was a very conceited fellow, and also a native of Medellin, and solicited so strongly that Cortes at length granted him his request; but, from what we afterwards heard, it would appear that Cortes only gave way to him to rid himself for ever of this man, who was of a malicious disposition, thinking he would never survive this campaign. However, this is very little to the purpose, and I will rather acquaint the reader that letters arrived from Cortes to twelve of us soldiers who had settled in Guacasualco, with orders for us to accompany Rangel on this expedition. I was likewise among the number, and it happened that all twelve of us were neighbours.
I have already informed the reader, in a previous chapter, that the country of the Zapotecs consists of high mountains; how nimble and courageous the inhabitants are, and how they communicate with each other by means of piping, the shrill sound of which reechoes through all the valleys. In such a place it may readily be imagined that a man like Rangel, and the troops under such a leader, would not be able to achieve anything. Wherever we came, the inhabitants had fled away; besides which, the houses were not built together as in other townships of New Spain, but straggling about, some on the mountains, others in the valleys. The rainy season had just set in when we arrived in this wild country, and poor Rangel suffered so violently from the swellings in his groins, that he cried out aloud in the agonies of pain. The rest of us, therefore, were not a little annoyed that we were compelled to sacrifice our time for such a man; however, he was soon convinced himself that all his trouble was to no purpose, and he resolved to relinquish the expedition, and to allow the men to return to their respective abodes. Pedro de Ircio, whom Rangel had purposely taken with him to profit by his good counsel, was the first who advised this latter step, and left him to return to Vera Cruz, where he had settled. Rangel himself marched back with us to Guacasualco, the warm climate of which he affirmed would agree best with his health. This we looked upon as a greater calamity even than marching out with him into the field of battle; however, we were obliged to submit, and we put the best face we could on the matter. When we had arrived in Guacasualco, he got it into his head to march to Cimatan and Talatupan, in order to put down the insurrection which still continued in these provinces. The inhabitants there principally confided in the strength of their positions, which lay between rivers, swamps, and marshy ground, where every step was attended with danger; besides which, they were remarkably expert archers, and the arrow which flew from their enormous bows seldom missed its aim.
In order that we might not dispute his word, Rangel produced his instructions from Cortes, in which he was also commanded to march against the rebellious provinces of Cimatan and Talatupan; he, therefore, in his capacity of commander-in-chief, summoned all the inhabitants of Guacasualco to join him in the expedition, and we stood in such awe of Cortes' mandates that we durst not offer the slightest opposition to Rangel's authority; and above one hundred of us, with all our horses, about twenty-six musketeers and crossbow-men, marched out with him. We passed through Tonala Ayagualulco, Copilco, Zacualco, crossed several rivers in canoes; and then marched through Teutitan and the townships of Chontalpa, until within twenty miles of Cimatan. Thus far the whole country was in profound peace; but a little further on we found the whole armed force of the country drawn up against us, strongly posted between the swamps and dangerous passes, having fortified their position by ramparts and a palisade, from which they flew their arrows at us through loop-holes. When we had arrived near enough, the enemy showered their arrows so quickly upon us, that six of our horses were killed and eight men wounded. Rangel himself, who was seated on horseback, received a slight wound in the arm. We, the veteran Conquistadores, had often told him what bold, crafty, and expert warriors he would have to encounter here, and now he began to believe so himself; and as he was a man who talked a good deal, he said if he had followed our advice this would not have happened to him; and, for the future, he desired we would take upon ourselves the command of the troops during this campaign.
After the wounds of our men and those of our horses had been dressed, Rangel desired me to reconnoitre the enemy's position, and take with me two of our most active musketeers, and a remarkably fierce dog which he possessed; he himself, as he had been advised, would follow me at some distance behind with the cavalry and the rest of our troops. When I, with my two companions, approached near to Cimatan, we came up to other fortifications equally as strong as the former, from out of which we were greeted with a cloud of arrows and darts. The poor dog lay instantly dead at our feet, and I myself should have shared a similar fate if my jacket had not been very thickly quilted with cotton, for I was wounded in no less than seven places by the enemy's arrows, one of which struck my leg; nor did my two companions fare better. I now called out to some of our Indian troops, who were close behind us, to hasten back and call the whole of the foot to our assistance, but to desire the cavalry not to advance, as they would not be able to manœuvre here, and would only expose their horses to the enemy's unerring arrows.
With the musketeers, crossbow-men, and the remaining foot, we now marched forward in a body to the attack, and very soon beat the enemy out of their entrenchments, who then retreated precipitately to the swamps, where it was impossible to follow them without great risk, for the ground was of so spongy a nature that the moment we set foot on it we sank down, and it was with great difficulty a person was got out again.
By this time Rangel had come up with the horse, and we quartered ourselves in a number of houses which stood together, and were quite deserted by the inhabitants; here we remained quiet for the remaining part of the day and dressed our wounds. The next morning we marched direct for Cimatan itself, and our route lay through extensive open plains, in which there were many dangerous bogs. In one of these the enemy lay in wait for us, and certainly they had calculated well in taking up their position here, for they easily foresaw, when the cavalry, in the heat of the battle, spread themselves in the open plain, they could not fail to get into the swampy ground, where they would be unable to move. We had many times cautioned Rangel about this, but he refused to listen to our advice; and, indeed, he was the first to get fixed in the bogs, where he lost his horse, and would himself undoubtedly have been killed if several of us had not hastened to his assistance, for several Indians had already laid hold of him to carry him off and sacrifice him to their idols. He thus narrowly escaped with his life, though his head, which, besides, was covered with sores, had been shockingly beat about by the enemy.
As this district was very thickly populated, and there was another township not very far off, we determined to march thither; but the inhabitants, on our approach, fled precipitately. Here we halted for a short time to dress Rangel's wounds and those of three other soldiers.
The next township we came to was likewise deserted by its inhabitants; but in this neighbourhood the enemy had thrown up a very formidable entrenchment, with a palisade of uncommon strength, supplied with loop-holes. Here we had scarcely rested a quarter of an hour when the enemy came suddenly pouring forth into the town from all sides, and fell upon us with so much intrepidity that they killed one of our men and two horses, and it was with the utmost difficulty we could succeed in driving them back again.
Our friend Rangel suffered greatly from the wounds he had received on his head; besides which he was tormented by the moschitoes and a large species of bat which bite people and suck their blood, so that he could get no rest day or night; and as it rained without intermission, he, with several of the men who had recently arrived from Spain, grew heartily sick of this mode of warfare; these soldiers brought forcibly to his mind the bad state of his health, the little advantage we had gained by the three several battles we had fought with the enemy, and how we had lost eleven horses and two men, besides that numbers were wounded, and that it would be impossible to accomplish anything more in a country so full of swamps and morasses. All this Rangel listened to with secret delight, for to turn back was the very thing he so ardently desired himself; however, in order to save appearances, and that it might seem as if his determination of marching back to Guacasualco was upon the advice and at the request of the troops themselves, he called a council of war, for which he selected those only whom he well knew would be of the same opinion with himself. I, with twenty of the men, just at that moment returned from a short excursion to some cacao plantations in the neighbourhood to try if we could not capture a few of the natives, and we had the good luck to bring in three females and two men prisoners. When I arrived in Rangel's quarters, he took me aside; he spoke a good deal about the terrible wounds on his head, and assured me that the greater part of the troops had advised him to relinquish the expedition and return to Cortes in Mexico.
I declared myself against this step without any hesitation; and, as we had known each other for four years, even before we left Cuba, I said boldly to him, "How, Señor; you have advanced up to Cimatan, and now wish to return? What will Cortes think of this, and what will your enemies say? How they will always throw in your teeth that you were neither able to gain any advantage over the Zapotecs nor to subdue the inhabitants of this province, although you had among your troops some of the most experienced of the Conquistadores, of those who settled in Guacasualco! Here not your honour alone is at stake but ours also; wherefore I, with a number of my companions, have determined further to explore these swamps and mountains, and to force our way into Cimatan, the principal township of the province. My horse you may give to some other soldier who is expert in handling the lance, it is of no use to me in this country, for, on account of the bad state of the ground, the cavalry are always obliged to remain behind the rest of the troops."
As Rangel was a great talker, and a man who soon fell into a passion, he jumped up from his seat, immediately ordered all the troops to assemble around him, and cried out to them, "The die is cast! by heavens! (for he could scarcely say two words together without swearing.) We must march forward! I am now convinced of the policy of so doing, since Bernal Diaz del Castillo has explained to me what our duty is. He is perfectly right in what he says."
