One of the chief causes which gave rise to the disputes of rival leaders for the occupancy of Nicaragua and Honduras was the policy which governed the Council of the Indies in regard to the colonial possessions of Spain. Gradually the discovery of Columbus had assumed gigantic proportions, and the indefinite and unknown limits to the territories which had been given to the first governors were becoming more fixed and determined. The immense extent of the discovery and the vast dominions which had been allotted to each colony was then first ascertained. It was deemed wise and prudent by the court of Spain that such broad possessions should be divided into smaller states, and governed by many, rather than that the whole should be under the jurisdiction of a few arrogant viceroys. Thus checks could be more easily placed on individuals, and the distant provinces of the New World could be more readily held in subjection. With this in view it was that Hernandez de Córdoba had been urged by the audiencia to throw off allegiance to Pedrarias, and that the enterprises not only of Gil Gonzalez but of Olid had been encouraged by the Spanish government.[XXI-1]
But a resort to arms as a method for settling their differences was by no means desired; and when the emperor became aware that hostilities had broken out among the colonists of Honduras and Nicaragua he peremptorily forbade any Spaniard to draw his sword against another, under penalty of his severe displeasure. The better to curb the encroaching conquerors on either side, and to further his policy, he resolved to appoint new governors for these provinces; and thus it was that Pedrarias, owing in a great measure to his wife and to family influence, had obtained the long desired lake region, even before the result of his residencia was known; while Honduras was given as early as 1525[XXI-2] to Diego Lopez de Salcedo, regardless of the great efforts and means expended by Cortés in its colonization, wholly from his own resources.[XXI-3]
SAAVEDRA AND SALCEDO.
Salcedo was at this time residing in Española, and on receiving the appointment, together with instructions to inquire into the late trouble and punish the guilty, he at once prepared to set out. The audiencia also took the instructions to heart, and, regarding Cortés as implicated, they seized one of his ships at Santo Domingo, with its cargo of merchandise.[XXI-4] Salcedo found the settlers at peace on reaching Trujillo. Saavedra and Alcalde Figueroa set the example to the other officials in doing reverence to the new ruler, who was solemnly inaugurated on the 27th of October, 1526.[XXI-5] The first act under the new régime was to make an investigation into the late political disturbances, and the result was the arrest of Saavedra, regidores Garnica and Vega, and two settlers named Martin Cortés and Morales, who were placed on a vessel for transmission to the judges in Española. Their safe-keeping was intrusted to Diego Morillo, who was installed with a staff of justice, to give him greater authority. But the emblem of the law failed to impose upon the prisoners, who were in this respect hardly less imbued with the spirit of the times than Pedrarias and his followers. They had too wholesome a fear of the quality of mercy dispensed by the pompous rulers at Santo Domingo, and determined to make an effort for liberty. The mainland had barely been lost to sight when they appealed to the master's sympathy. Their argument was sufficiently weighted to be convincing, and the shackles were not only transferred to Morillo, but he was relieved of all his effects. The vessel's course was thereupon changed to Cuba, where the mutineers dispersed in search of wider spheres of operations.[XXI-6]
Shortly after Salcedo's installation the three envoys of Pedrarias arrived at Trujillo. Finding a royal governor instead of the intruder Saavedra, they did not venture to present their demands for the submission of the province, but sought instead to regain Nicaragua and warn their master. Salcedo had them arrested, however, as concerned in the disorders in Nicaragua and Olancho, and turned the tables by declaring Pedrarias an arraigned culprit, answerable to the residencia judge at Panamá, and Nicaragua as falling within the jurisdiction of Honduras, instead of pertaining to Castilla del Oro. He intended, in fact, to take possession at once, and in this course he was encouraged by petitions from the anti-Pedrarias faction of that province. The limits of Salcedo's government had not been fixed, and what more natural than to base on the claims of Cortés and Gonzalez the pleasing illusion that Nicaragua must belong to his jurisdiction? An additional excuse was to be found in the late political disturbances in that province, which it behooved him as a royal officer to stop. The captive envoys should accompany him as guides and hostages.
Preparations were soon concluded, and Salcedo departed with nearly one hundred and fifty horsemen, leaving the small remnant at Trujillo under command of Francisco de Cisneros.[XXI-7] He sent forward Alonso de Solis, one of his captains, and a priest, with instructions to report to him the condition of the Indians throughout the district; whether they were friendly or otherwise; and what were their feelings in regard to the Christian faith which they had previously professed to adopt. Solis speedily came back with the information that bands of Spaniards were prowling about the Olancho Valley. Salcedo advanced upon them, and a skirmish ensued in which two men were lost. Suspecting that Albites and his companions might be connected with this untoward check, he sent them back to Trujillo with instructions for their immediate transmission to Santo Domingo, on the charge of inciting native revolts and other disorders. These charges were not sustained, however, and the prisoners soon returned fully exonerated.
WOES OF THE NATIVES.
Still another check came to dampen the ardor of the party, and Treasurer Castillo, among others, urged the abandonment of the expedition; but the fair shores of the Freshwater Sea had taken too deep a hold upon Salcedo's fancy, strewn as they were by rumor with much gold. No; he knew his duty as royal officer, and would extend his beneficent rule to this region. As for his losses and disappointments, he would look to that universal source of redress, the natives. Caciques were summoned to furnish Indians for carrying burdens and gathering food, and soldiers went forth to enforce the order. A number of those suspected of complicity in the disturbances at Natividad were hanged and others enslaved, to be eventually sent out of the country and sold. Great were their woes. Those who lost their relatives or near friends fled to the mountains, preferring starvation and death to the cruel oppression of the strangers. This feeling extended also to the district of Comayagua, and created a distrust which was at once magnified into revolt. The Spaniards immediately fell upon them, and a terrible havoc ensued. The natives resorted to the passive retaliation of withdrawing supplies, and even of destroying the crops, so as to leave the Spaniards without food, and compel them to devour horses and dogs. This heightened the feeling against them, and even the carriers were made to suffer so severely that many threw off their loads and sought to escape, only to be overtaken and slaughtered. The panic spread, and tribes distant from the scene burned their villages and fields to seek refuge in the mountains, lest they should be exposed to similar outrages on Salcedo's return.
In Nicaragua the rumor of these doings had impelled the natives to assume a threatening attitude, so that when the Spanish party finally arrived at the city of Leon they were hailed as saviors. This helped to pave the way for Salcedo, and when he submitted his commission to Martin Estete, the officer in charge, and to the municipal body, they gave one glance at the sturdy forces by his side and then recognized it as valid. The new governor was sworn in May 7, 1527. Once in undisputed possession the humanity of Salcedo underwent a change. He would no longer carry panic into native villages by means of raiding parties; nay, he would even relieve the Indians from the oppression of their present masters, the late subjects of Pedrarias, and place them under the experienced control of his friends and followers. Without more ado the choice repartimientos were transferred to the hands of himself and his adherents, with not even an attempted excuse to the late holders. Such high-handed proceedings created general dissatisfaction, not only among the despoiled settlers but also among the enslaved, who were regarded as cattle, and treated with a severity paralleled only by the Honduras atrocities. More spirited, however, than the former victims, they retaliated with sullen stubbornness, and refused to gather gold or perform agricultural labor. The distress increased, and many could not procure the common necessaries of life. The rupture between the two races developed into open warfare, in which rights, grievances, and passion often figured only as minor impulses by the side of the cravings of hunger.[XXI-8]
PEDRARIAS AND RIOS.