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 passionate, and had only the upper half of his ears left, having had the bottom halves, as he asserted, 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 circumstance, 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: "Señor 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 Nuñez 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 assembling all his strength he started up from the floor with the cry of: "My friends, assist 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 assembled 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 passed on him he was decapitated by order of these two officers, Las Casas and Avila on the market-place at Naco.
Thus miserably did Christobal de Oli end his days by listening to the advice of bad men, and forgetting how greatly he was indebted to Cortes, who had appointed him quartermaster-general, and had bestowed upon him lucrative commendaries. He had always proved himself a man of great courage, and was recently married to a Portuguese lady, named Filipa de Araujo, by whom he had a daughter.
As soon as Las Casas and Avila had got rid of their common enemy they assembled all the troops; they divided the command equally between themselves, and continued on the best terms with each other. Las Casas soon after founded the town of Truxillo, which he so called from his native place of Truxillo in Estremadura; and Avila despatched a small body of troops to the town which he had previously founded, called Buena Vista, in order to see what condition the colony was in. The command of this small detachment he gave to an officer named Armenta, with orders not to make any changes there, if at least he found everything in the same condition as when he left it; but to await his return from New Spain, whither he would immediately repair to beg Cortes for a fresh supply of troops. Las Casas likewise determined to proceed with Avila to Mexico, in order that they might jointly give Cortes an account of every circumstance that had transpired.
I must, however, close this chapter here, for I shall have to return to these occurrences in the proper part of my history; I have merely to observe, that Cortes did not receive intelligence of what I have just related till some considerable time after.