Beyond the domain of Urracá, toward the west, in Veragua, was the province of Chiriquí. Thither Pedrarias sent Benito Hurtado to establish a colony. The country being thinly populated was easily taken and held. Indeed, the caciques of Chiriquí, Vareclas, and Burica, the chief rulers within an area of one hundred leagues, obeyed without resistance, and for two years the colony of Chiriquí was unmolested. But the more submissive the people, the more exacting the conquering race. The crushing weight of servitude becoming unbearable, the men of Chiriquí at length rose to arms. They were joined in a general revolt by Urracá. Unable to vanquish this chieftain, Compañon determined to capture him by fair means or foul. Overtures were begun by presents and fair promises, and at length, under the most solemn assurances of liberty and safety, Urracá was induced to visit the governor at Natá. No sooner had he entered the town than he was seized and ironed. I am disposed to praise the perfidious Compañon for not burning his captive, or giving him to the dogs; he only sent him, in violation of his sacred pledge, a prisoner to Nombre de Dios, with the intention of shipping him off to Spain. Before the sailing of a ship, however, the brave cacique managed to burst his fetters and escape. Breathing vengeance he roused the mountains, organized a yet more powerful confederation, and marched against Natá. Long and bloody warfare ensued, with alternate success. One of the most disastrous conflicts occurred early in 1527, in an expedition against a rebel chief named Trota, under Captain Alonso de Vargas, with forty soldiers, principally men newly arrived from Spain. The protestations of some of Trota's adherents, who entered the camp with humble mien but active eyes, induced the captain, at the recommendation of a veteran comrade, to send Pocoa, an allied chief and guide, with offers of peace. The fellow was no sooner out of sight than he cast the olive branch to the winds, and joining cause with Trota, advised him to seize so advantageous an opportunity for glory and revenge, when the force before him was weak and inexperienced and the commander ailing. Four days later five hundred warriors fell upon the camp, led by Pocoa in a glittering breastplate of gold. Although taken by surprise, the soldiers fought desperately, but the numbers were overwhelming, and Vargas succumbed with half his men. This blow was one more incentive for the Spaniards to exert themselves in retaliation and conquest. The country adjacent to the settlement being open and level, horses and cannon could be used with advantage; while on the other hand, to make up for lack of skill, were numbers, drawn from a great distance around, with the protecting mountains in which to nurse declining energies. Thus for nine years the war continued, until the chieftain Urracá, yielded up his life, though not, after all, to arquebuse or bloodhound: he died in bed, among his own people, but lamenting, with the last breath, his inability to drive out the detested Christians.

CHAPTER XVI.
THE WARS OF THE SPANIARDS.
1523-1524.

Oviedo in Spain—He Secures the Appointment of Pedro de los Rios as Governor of Castilla del Oro—Pedrarias Determines to Possess Nicaragua—He Sends thither Córdoba, who Founds Brusélas, Granada, and Leon—And Carries a Ship across the Land from the Pacific to Lake Nicaragua—He Makes a Survey of the Lake—Informed of Spaniards Lurking thereabout—Development of the Spanish Colonial System—Gil Gonzalez Escapes with his Treasure to Española—Despatches Cereceda to Spain with Intelligence of his Discovery—Sails from Santo Domingo to the Coast of Honduras—Arrives at Puerto Caballos—Founds San Gil de Buenavista—Encounters Hernando de Soto—Battle—Cristóbal de Olid Appears—Founds Triunfo de la Cruz.

Scarcely were the fair provinces of the Southern Sea brought under the yoke of the Spaniards, when the conquerors began contending among themselves. For it must be confessed that neither their culture nor their religion prevented them from behaving very much like the wild beasts and the wild men to whom they regarded themselves superior. In following these disputes we will now accompany, in a second visit to Spain, the author and veedor, and withal the maker of governors, Fernandez de Oviedo, whom we left in July, 1523, fleeing the wrath of Pedrarias.

At Cuba the veedor was entertained by Diego Velazquez, the governor; at Española he was invited by Diego Colon to take passage with him for Seville, where he arrived in November. After presenting himself to the Council of the Indies, at Búrgos, he went to Vitoria, where the court was residing. Vested with full power to act for the city of Antigua, Oviedo set forth the affairs of the colony, entered his complaints against Pedrarias, and urged the appointment of a new governor. In this measure he was opposed by the bachiller Corral, whom he had made an effort to send in chains to Spain, and by Isabel, wife of Pedrarias. Through their influence he was involved in litigation which lasted two years; and for his treatment of the bachiller he was fined one hundred thousand maravedís, which he was obliged to pay. But in the end the veedor triumphed in displacing Pedrarias, and in securing the appointment of Pedro de los Rios, of Córdova, as governor of Castilla del Oro, and of the licenciado Juan de Salmeron as alcalde mayor and judge of residencia.

The prospect of speedy displacement in office, no less than the success of Gil Gonzalez at the freshwater sea, determined Pedrarias to secure a footing in Nicaragua before the arrival of the new governor of Castilla del Oro. No one knew better than himself that by the customs of discovery and occupation, which were now fast becoming laws, he had not the slightest right there, having neither contributed to the discovery of Gil Gonzalez, nor even sanctioned it. As an act preliminary to taking possession of this discovery, Pedrarias despatched thither his lieutenant, Francisco Hernandez de Córdoba—not he who discovered Yucatan, though of the same name—and captains Gabriel de Rojas, Francisco Compañon, and Hernando de Soto, who embarked from Panamá in 1524.

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CÓRDOBA IN NICARAGUA.