After every arrangement respecting the government of the country had been settled between Sandoval and Estrada, the latter was advised by his friends to despatch a vessel forthwith to Spain to forward his majesty an account of everything that had taken place, and to draw up this account in such a manner as if he had only taken Sandoval as a colleague in order to avoid giving Cortes a share of the government.
Cortes' enemies also profited by this opportunity to despatch their letters to Spain, in which they calumniated our general in the foulest manner; they stated right out that he had poisoned Garay, Leon, and Aguilar, and that it was his intention to put the veedor and factor to death; the whole of which, however, were most barefaced and scandalous lies. To all this was added, that about the same time the accountant Albornoz, who was never well inclined towards Cortes, went to Spain to injure him in every possible manner. After his majesty and the council of the Indies had read all the letters and despatches, which seemed to vie with each other in their complaints against Cortes, and were moreover confirmed by Albornoz, all the former accusations respecting his treatment of Narvaez, Tapia, and his conduct towards his first wife, Doña Catalina Suarez la Marcaida, were harrowed up again, and actually gained credit in all their distortion. The emperor, therefore, came to the determination to appoint Estrada sole governor of New Spain; he confirmed all his previous acts and deeds, gave him power to distribute the commendaries according to the best of his judgment, and ordered that the factor and veedor should again be set at liberty and reinstated in all their former possessions.
A vessel was immediately despatched from Spain with these his majesty's commands, which soon arrived in Mexico; but this was not all, for his majesty also ordered the comendador-mayor of the order of Alcantara, Don Pedro de la Cueva, to equip three hundred soldiers at Cortes' expense, to repair with these to New Spain, there to make inquiries into the complaints which had been made against Cortes, with full power, if he should find them founded in truth, to cut off his head. In the same way the comendador was to punish all those who had acted against the real interests of the crown; he was to take away all the townships in possession of Cortes, and to distribute them among the veteran Conquistadores. His majesty likewise ordered that a royal court of audience should be appointed at Mexico, as a supreme court of justice.
The departure of the comendador-mayor, however, was so long deferred, that at last it was given up altogether; for it met with great opposition at court, and the comendador was either not supplied with so large a sum of money as he had asked for, or perhaps the duke of Bejar had again espoused Cortes' cause, as on former occasions.
But to return to the treasurer Estrada. He grew excessively vain and proud when he found himself so highly favoured by his majesty as to be appointed sole governor of New Spain; and he had been assured that the emperor knew he was a son of his catholic majesty king Ferdinand. The first thing he did therefore was to despatch his cousin Diego de Mazariegos as captain to Chiapa, to institute an inquiry into the conduct of Don Juan Enriquez de Guzman, to whom Marcos de Aguilar had intrusted the chief command in that province, but who plundered and oppressed the inhabitants in the most shameful manner. In the same way he began to make preparations to subject the townships of the Zapotecs and of the Minxes, and to make success more sure they were to be attacked from two different points at the same time. The troops which were to operate on the north side he gave in command to a certain Barrios, who had previously been captain in Italy. He was a man of great courage, had but recently arrived from Spain, and must not be confounded with Cortes' cousin Barrios, of Seville. The number of his troops, on this expedition, amounted to above one hundred men, including several musketeers and crossbow-men. But this expedition terminated very unfortunately, for scarcely had he arrived in the Tiltepec townships, when one night he was suddenly attacked by the natives, and Barrios himself killed, with seven of his men. The greater part of the remaining troops were wounded, and the whole of them would undoubtedly have been cut to pieces if they had not made a precipitate retreat to Villa-Diego and the neighbouring friendly districts.
This, I think, is a sufficient proof of the difference between the veteran Conquistadores and the troops newly arrived from Spain, who have not the slightest notion of a war with Indians or of their artifices; and thus miserably did this expedition terminate.
The second body of troops were to fall into the Zapotec territory from the side of Guaxaca, and were commanded by an officer named Figuero, who, it was said, had likewise previously been a captain in Spain; one thing is certain, he stood on a most confidential footing with the governor Estrada. He had a like number of troops under his command as Barrios, but also men recently arrived from Spain. As soon as he reached the territory of the Zapotecs, he despatched a messenger to a certain Alonso Herrera to repair to his camp. This Herrera had been sent with a detachment of thirty men into these provinces, during the administration of Marcos de Aguilar.
Figuero had, no doubt, been empowered to take the command over Herrera, for the latter obeyed his orders and arrived in his camp; but they had not been long there together before a terrible dispute arose between them, which ended in their drawing swords, and in Herrera severely wounding Figuero, besides three soldiers who came up to defend him. As the latter officer, on account of his wounds was unable to use his arm, he gave up all idea of marching to the mountains of the Minxes, which were very difficult of access; besides which, his men had no notion of the warfare of this country; so that in the end he solely turned his attention towards discovering the burial places of the caziques, to open their graves for the sake of the gold ornaments which the inhabitants of olden times were accustomed to bury with their chiefs. This employment he prosecuted with so much vigour, and his endeavours proved so successful, that he collected in this manner above 100,000 pesos worth of gold, and with this treasure, added to some other valuable matters he had found in two of the townships, he determined to retire, and he consequently relinquished the expedition against the Zapotecs and Minxes altogether. He then returned to Mexico with the intention of spending his money quietly in Spain; for which purpose he shortly after set sail from Vera Cruz, but had not been long at sea before he was overtaken by so terrific a storm that the vessel, he himself, with five other passengers and all his gold went to the bottom.
Thus terminated all the governor Estrada's warlike undertakings against these provinces, nor was the rebellion put down until we, the inhabitants of Guacasualco, marched against them and completely subdued the country; though it was no very easy matter for us either, and as the cavalry was of no use among the high mountains there: I was obliged three several times to march out against these tribes; for if we did subdue them during the spring and summer months, they were sure to revolt again when the rainy season set in, and they put every Spaniard they could lay hold of to death. But as we each time vigorously pursued them to their retreats, they at length sued for peace, and then it was that the town of San Alfonso was founded in their country.
The governor Estrada, in the meantime, was determined that Herrera should not go unpunished for wounding his friend Figuero, and issued orders for his apprehension; but he had escaped to the mountains before the arrival of the alguacils, who, in order not to return with empty hands to Mexico, brought back with them in chains a soldier, whom Herrera had generally about his person. This man's name was Cortejo, and he was a hidalgo by birth, yet the governor without so much as bringing him to trial, ordered his right hand to be cut off.