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,[41] 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.