Sandoval was very desirous of getting the above-mentioned chiefs into his power, and at length succeeded in capturing the principal one, who was tried, and sentenced to the stake. Several other Mexicans were brought in at the same time with this chief, but though they had equally deserved death, they were allowed to go at large, and thus one had to suffer for all. Sandoval then sent to the townships of the province of the Tzapotecs, which lay about forty miles further on, desiring them to despatch messengers of peace to him; but they refusing to do so, he ordered off the captain Briones (who had commanded one of the brigantines, and had, as he himself assured us, signalized himself in the Italian wars,) against them, with one hundred men, among whom there were thirty crossbow-men and musketeers, besides one hundred auxiliaries of the allied provinces. The Tzapotecs were duly apprized of Briones's approach, and lay in ambush for him, from which they fell suddenly upon him, and wounded more than a third part of his men, of whom one died soon after. The Tzapotecs inhabit the most rugged and inaccessible mountain districts, where no cavalry can approach, and even the foot soldiers could with difficulty move along narrow paths, one behind the other; besides which, these mountains are enveloped in everlasting mists, and the dew is always falling, which renders the ground so slippery that it is dangerous to move along. The lances of this people were also very formidable, and much longer than ours, and provided with a species of blade made of flint, which is much sharper than a Spanish sword. They also had light shields, which covered the whole body, and they use the bow, the pike, and the sling. When these wild people, who are excessively nimble, bounded from one rock to another, where our men could not get at them, they communicated with each other by means of piping and shouting, and the noise rolled and resounded through the mountains for a length of time, until lost in distant echoes.
The captain Briones then returned with a great number of his men wounded, he himself having been struck by an arrow. The township where he met with this defeat was called Tiltepec, and the inhabitants subsequently submitted of their own accord, when the district was given as a commendary to a soldier, named Ojeda, the one-eyed, who at present lives in the town of San Ildefonso.
When Briones called upon Sandoval to give him an account of his expedition, and said a great deal about the courage of the Tzapotecs, Sandoval reminded him of the many bloody engagements he had spoken of in his Italian campaigns, and added, "It appears, nevertheless, captain, that you experienced hotter work on this occasion than in any of your previous battles?"
Briones, who appeared greatly annoyed, swore that he would at any time rather stand over against heavy cannon and a large army, would even rather fight against the Turks and Saracens, than against the Tzapotecs; and adduced good reasons for saying so.
To this Sandoval immediately answered, "Then I must say I am sorry I gave you that command; but after the many things you have told us of your Italian campaigns, I could not help thinking but this expedition would be a mere frolic to you. In what light will these Tzapotecs look upon us henceforth? At present they will certainly entertain a different notion of our bravery to what they did previously!"
After this unfortunate expedition, Sandoval sent word to the inhabitants of the province of Xaltepec that they should despatch ambassadors to us, and declare themselves vassals of our emperor. This tribe also belongs to the Tzapotecs, and their country is bounded by that of the Minxes, another very courageous and warlike tribe, with whom the Xaltepecs happened to be at war just then. Twenty of the caziques and principal personages soon made their appearance, bringing with them a present of gold dust in ten small tubes, besides various pretty ornaments. These chiefs were clad in very large cotton cloaks, which hung down to their feet, and were embroidered after the manner of the Moorish mantle. They presented themselves to Sandoval with a most respectful demeanour, who received them most courteously, and gave them some glass beads. This kind reception emboldened them to beg of him that some of his teules might accompany them home, in order to assist their country in a war against the Minxes; but as Sandoval at that moment could not well spare any of his men, as a great part of Briones' detachment was wounded, and many suffering with fever, of which four men had recently died, he put off these chiefs with many flattering assurances, and promised them he would request Malinche, who was at Mexico, to send a strong body of teules to their assistance; in the meantime he would send eight of his companions with them to explore the dangerous passes and that part of the country from which they intended to fall upon the Minxes. But Sandoval's real motive in sending these ten soldiers with them was, that they might visit those districts, and particularly the mines whence the Xaltepecs obtained their gold. Three of the caziques Sandoval desired should remain with him, and the rest left in our company. It happened that there were three soldiers of the name of Castillo in Sandoval's troops, who all accompanied the caziques on this occasion. One was Alonso de Castillo, surnamed the Discreet, because he always gave a ready and suitable answer to any question that was put to him; the second was myself, whom the soldiers surnamed the Gallant, for at that time I prided myself very much on my courteous behaviour: the third Castillo had a very meditative countenance, and always took a long time to consider before he replied; but when he did it was sure to be something very ridiculous, and he was surnamed the Deliberate. But enough of this. We arrived in the province, and began diligently to explore the mines, accompanied by a great number of Indians, who washed the gold dust for us in a kind of trough, from the sand of three different rivers. In this way we obtained four tubes full of gold dust, each about the thickness of the middle finger. Sandoval was highly delighted when we brought him these, and concluded that the country must contain rich gold mines. He then divided the townships of the province among those of his men whom he intended leaving behind; for himself he took the townships of Guazpaltepec, which at that time was by far the best property in this province, and lay in the neighbourhood of the mines, from which Sandoval collected above 15,000 pesos' worth of gold, and he was quite surprised at his own good fortune. The chief command of the province he gave to Luis Marin, and presented him with lands equal to an earldom; in the course of time, however, these possessions turned out less valuable than was at first expected. Sandoval also offered me some very good and valuable townships in this province, and I wish to heavens I had accepted of them. These places were called Maltlatan, Ozotekipa, and Orizaba, where the viceroy at present has a mill. I refused these possessions, because I considered that I was in honour bound not to leave Sandoval, who was my particular friend. He was well aware of my reasons, and in the subsequent campaigns I made with him he strove in every way to further my views.
In this province Sandoval laid the foundation of a town, which, by the desire of Cortes, he named Medellin, after the latter's native place, in Estremadura. There was a bay in this province, into which the Chalchocucea river[32] empties itself, or, as we termed it, the Banderas stream, where we made the 16,000 pesos during the expedition under Grijalva; at first all communication with Spain was from this harbour, until Vera Cruz became the chief port.
We now marched towards the river Guacasualco, and we may have been about 240 miles from the last-mentioned town, when we arrived on the confines of the province of Citla, the climate of which is the most bracing of all, the country itself abounding in provisions, and more thickly populated than any we had visited. It was of this province I remarked that it was forty-eight miles long, as many in breadth, with a vast population.
When we arrived at the river Guacasualco we sent for the caziques of the different townships; but as three days passed by without any one making his appearance, or our receiving any answer, we concluded the inhabitants were preparing to attack us. At first, indeed, they had resolved to oppose our crossing the river, but they soon came to a more reasonable determination, and arrived in our camp on the fifth day with a supply of provisions, and a few ornaments of very pure gold. They immediately offered to furnish us with a sufficient number of large canoes, if we felt any inclination to cross the river. Sandoval thanked them for their kind offer, but previously held a consultation with us as to whether it was advisable for all the troops to cross over at once; and we resolved that four men should first pass over, to see how matters stood in the township opposite, which lay close to the river side, and to get the chief cazique, whose name was Tochel, into their power. Four of our men accordingly went across the river, and after looking well about them, they brought us word that everything wore the most peaceable aspect, and were accompanied by the son of Tochel, who came with another small present of gold. Sandoval was vastly pleased with this news, and desired the caziques to furnish him with 100 canoes, which were fastened two and two together, to convey the horses across the river. It happened to be the day of Pentecost when we crossed over, and for this reason we called the township, which lay on this river, Villa de Espiritu Santo; also because it was the anniversary of the day on which we defeated Narvaez under the cry of Espiritu Santo.
As this province submitted to our arms without offering any resistance, the flower of the troops which went out with Sandoval on this occasion, settled down here; as for instance, besides Sandoval himself, Luis Marin, Diego de Godoy, Francisco de Medina, Francisco Marmolejo, Francisco de Lugo, Juan Lopez de Aguirre, Hernando de Montes de Oca, Juan de Salamanca, Diego de Azamar, Mexia Rapapelo, Alonso de Grado, the licentiate Ledesma, Luis de Bustamente, Pedro Castellar, the captain Briones, a certain Mantilla, myself and several other cavaliers and men of distinction, all of whom I am unable to mention by name; but the reader may have some idea of our numbers, when I inform him that on days of parade, or whenever an alarm was sounded, we could always muster in the great square above eighty men on horseback; and it must be remembered that eighty horse at that time was more than five hundred at the present day; for horses were very scarce then in New Spain, excessively dear, and often not to be had at any price.