The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol 2 Part 18

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 a.s.sist 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 a.s.sured 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_,[45] 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 pa.s.sed 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 towns.h.i.+p 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 princ.i.p.al towns.h.i.+ps. 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 astonis.h.i.+ng 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 G.o.d, 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 circ.u.mstances more fully in the proper place. Subsequently several other very pious and excellent men of this same order arrived from Spain, who were particularly a.s.siduous 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 Dona 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 circ.u.mstantial account of what was going on in the country; of the conversion of the Indians, the rebuilding of the city of Tenocht.i.tlan-Mexico, and of other important circ.u.mstances; 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 a.s.suring 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 Nunez, 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 a.s.sured his majesty that Cortes levied vast quant.i.ties of gold upon the caziques, under the pretext of forwarding it to his majesty; thereby occasioning great discontent throughout the whole country. He had a.s.sembled 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 ama.s.sed 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 quant.i.ty 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 a.s.sisted 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 a.s.sured 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 a.s.sistance, 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 quant.i.ties 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 circ.u.mstances. 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.

CHAPTER CLXXIII.

_How Cortes sent out a captain, named Francisco de las Casas against Christobal de Oli, on receiving intelligence that this officer had made common cause with Diego Velasquez, and had renounced all further obedience to him._

In order to render this chapter quite intelligible to the reader I must recur to prior events. I mentioned above that Cortes fitted out an armament for the Honduras and Higueras, the command of which he intrusted to Christobal de Oli. It was not long before our general received intelligence of the unfortunate termination of this expedition, as far as regarded himself. When, therefore, he learnt that Oli had made common cause with Diego Velasquez, and had determined to act independent of him, he became very pensive. But, as he was remarkably spirited, and not accustomed to joke in matters of this kind, he at once determined either to march against Oli in person, or to send out an officer against him on whom he could place implicit reliance, as he had previously declared to his majesty.

About this time there had arrived in Mexico a cavalier, named Francisco de las Casas. As he was a man in whom he could confide, being also related to him, he resolved to send him against Oli. For this purpose he fitted out a small armament, consisting of five vessels, well provided with cannon and other ammunition. On board of this fleet he embarked one hundred men, among whom were several of the veteran Conquistadores, as for instance, Pedro Moreno Medrano, Juan Nunez de Mercado, Juan Vello, and many others, whose names I will not mention, as they died on their way thither.

Francisco de las Casas received full powers from Cortes to seize Oli and throw him into chains. He set sail from Vera Cruz with very favorable weather, and arrived in a short time in the bay of Triunfo de la Cruz, where Oli had founded a town of the same name, and in front of which his vessels lay at anchor. As Francisco de las Casas on entering the bay had hoisted a white flag, Oli scarcely knew what to think at first, but thought at all events it was better to be upon his guard, and ran out two of his smallest vessels, well-armed with a strong body of men, in order to prevent Las Casas from entering into the harbour and landing his troops, though he was as yet quite ignorant who the new comers were.

Las Casas, who was a man of great courage and determination, immediately lowered his boats, on board of which he placed one of the falconets and the most active of his men, well armed with muskets and crossbows, being resolved, he said, to land his troops some how or other. A severe conflict now ensued, in which Las Casas bored one of Oli's vessels into the ground, killed four of his men and wounded several others.

Christobal de Oli, seeing that matters were growing very serious, thought it advisable on his part to stay hostilities, in order to gain time to a.s.semble all his troops about him; for he had, a few days previously, despatched two companies to the river Pechin against a certain Gil Gonsalez de Avila, who had begun to subdue the country there. He therefore sent word to Las Casas that he was desirous of making terms of peace with him; to which Las Casas so far consented that he staid hostilities for the present, and lay out at sea with his vessel for the night, in order to effect a landing in some other bay.

How much more fortunate it would have been for him if he had acted according to the letter which was secretly thrust into his hand during the engagement! In this letter namely, several of Oli's men who favoured Cortes advised Las Casas by all means to land his troops without delay; that they would all run over to his side and deliver up Oli a prisoner to him. Fortunately for Oli, and unfortunately for Las Casas, a furious north wind, which is the most dangerous of all on this coast, arose during the night, and the whole of his vessels were wrecked; thirty of his men were drowned, and all the ammunition and stores went to the bottom. Las Casas and the rest of his men, after wandering about the country for two days benumbed with wet and cold, without a morsel of food to eat, were all taken prisoners by Oli's troops.

Christobal de Oli, it may be imagined, was excessively rejoiced that things had thus terminated so unexpectedly in his favour, and he exulted greatly in having the person of Las Casas in his power. He immediately took the latter's troops into his service, and compelled them to take a solemn oath never to desert him, but to oppose Cortes if he should come with an army against him; not until they had promised all this did he set them at liberty. Las Casas alone he kept a prisoner.

Shortly upon this the detachment also returned which had been sent against Gil Gonsalez de Avila. This man had arrived in the country with the appointment of governor of Golfo Dulce, and he had already founded, at about four miles distance from the bay of the same name, a town which he called San Gil de Buena Vista. The country bounding on the river Chipin was at that time inhabited by a very warlike people; and as by far the greater part of Gil Gonsalez's troops were suffering from ill health, the latter had only been able to throw a feeble garrison into the town of Buena Vista. Christobal de Oli had been duly apprized of this, and ordered the town to be attacked; but his troops could not so easily get possession of the place as they expected. Avila's small body of men defended themselves most vigorously, and eight of the soldiers, with a cousin of his, were killed. Christobal de Oli was both rejoiced and proud to have taken prisoners the chief commanders of two separate armaments; and as he bore the character of being an excellent soldier, which, indeed, no one could deny, and it was of importance to him that the success of his arms should be made known through the islands, he immediately sent information of his good fortune to the governor of Cuba.

After this victory he marched his troops towards the interior of the country to a large towns.h.i.+p named Naco, which lay in a very populous district. It was upon this occasion that Naco was completely destroyed, and the whole of the surrounding country laid waste, and this I relate from eyewitness, as I subsequently visited these parts myself, when I accompanied Cortes on his expedition to the Honduras, of which a full account will be given in the proper place.

From Naco, Oli sent out a strong detachment to forage the country, under the command of Briones, who had been one of the first to advise Oli to declare his independence of Cortes. This Briones was of a turbulent disposition, besides being very pa.s.sionate, and had only the upper half of his ears left, having had the bottom halves, as he a.s.serted, cut off by the enemy, while he, with several other officers, was obstinately defending some fortification. He terminated his life in a miserable manner, for he was subsequently hung at Guatimala for creating a sedition among the troops. Some time after Briones had been sent out by Oli to a distant part of the country with a considerable body of his troops, he received intelligence that he had deserted, with the whole of the men under his command, and was marching in the direction of New Spain; this news was indeed found to be perfectly correct.

This circ.u.mstance, Las Casas and Avila thought, presented to them a most favorable opportunity to rid themselves of Oli, who still continued to treat both of them as prisoners of war, though they were allowed to go at large, for Oli depended too much upon his own personal courage to fear anything from them. The whole of the adherents of Cortes secretly joined Las Casas and Avila, and they agreed upon a certain signal to fall upon Oli and stab him to death under the cry of "In the name of the emperor and of Cortes, down with the tyrant!" Everything had been arranged in the best possible manner for this purpose, and Las Casas, on one occasion said to Oli: "Senor captain, do grant me my liberty and allow me to return to New Spain, in order that I may render an account to Cortes of the unfortunate termination of this expedition? I promise you to become mediator between yourself and Cortes, and to procure for you the government, with the chief military command of this country, and I will myself see the appointment drawn up in due form. What can you gain by detaining me a prisoner, for I am only a hindrance to you in all your undertakings?" To this Oli replied, "That he was perfectly contented with things as they were, and that he was delighted to have a man of his worth about him."

"But have at least then," continued Las Casas, "some thought for your own personal safety, for I might get it into my head some day or other to put you to death!"

As Las Casas said all this in a joking humour, he took no notice of it, and continued as little on his guard as ever.

One evening Las Casas, Avila, Juan Nunez de Mercado, and other soldiers of Cortes' party were invited to sup with Oli. The first two, as prisoners of war, were not allowed to carry arms, but had concealed on their persons large knives, which were ground very sharp. The whole of the company had already laid aside their cloaks to seat themselves at table, and stood around Oli, discoursing on Cortes' good fortune and the conquest of the strong city of Mexico. As Christobal de Oli was thus quite off his guard, not in the least suspecting that there was any design upon his life, Las Casas, on a sudden, seized forcibly hold of his beard and stabbed him in the neck with his knife. Upon this the other conspirators fell in a body upon him, and gave him so many stabs, that he fell to the ground; but as he was a man of enormous muscular power he regained his consciousness, while the conspirators were sitting at table enjoying their suppers, and a.s.sembling all his strength he started up from the floor with the cry of: "_My friends, a.s.sist your captain!_" and then ran out to hide himself in the woods until his adherents should have rallied round him. And, indeed, a great part of his troops instantly a.s.sembled for this purpose; but Las Casas cried out to them: "In the name of the emperor and of Cortes I command you to fall upon the tyrant! His tyranny is no longer to be borne!"

As soon as these names were mentioned no one durst stir a finger in Oli's defence; on the contrary, every one quietly submitted and immediately obeyed Las Casas' commands, by hurrying off in search of Oli to bring him in a prisoner. He then made known that any one who knew of Oli's concealment and neglected to give information of it should suffer death.

By this means it was soon discovered where Oli lay concealed, and after he had been brought in a prisoner, a criminal suit was commenced against him in due form, and sentence of death being pa.s.sed on him he was decapitated by order of these two officers, Las Casas and Avila on the market-place at Naco.