A day or two later the Spaniards were approaching the verge of a forest. An Indian hidden behind the trees to watch their movements was observed running off at full speed to give the alarm. Next morning at daybreak they were attacked by a horde of natives who "advanced," as Benzoni relates, "with horrid howls and screams and noises with the buccinus—shells and drums—all painted red and black, adorned with feathers, and golden trinkets round their necks." "In one half of a quarter of an hour," continues the chronicler, "during which we killed and wounded a great many Indians, we made them turn their shoulders."[XI‑16] They soon returned, however, and renewed the conflict. The Spaniards, worn with toil and fasting, were quickly overpowered and all but six were slain. Gutierrez fell[XI‑17] mortally wounded, and his head, hands, and feet were afterward severed from his body and borne as trophies through the region which he had proposed to subjugate.
GIROLAMO BENZONI.
Benzoni stumbled upon the helmet of a dead comrade, but for which circumstance no history of the New World would ever have been produced by him. "For," says he, "the stones from the savages hailed upon it with such force that it looked as if it had been hammered by a smith." After some hair-breadth escapes on which the historian fondly lingers, he was rescued together with his five comrades by the timely arrival of Alonso de Pisa's detachment, and marching night and day the survivors made their way back to the Rio San Juan, and thence embarked for Nombre de Dios.[XI‑18]
CHAPTER XII.
ALVARADO'S LAST EXPEDITION.
1537-1541.
The Adelantado's Match-making Venture—Its Failure—Alvarado's Commission from the Crown—He Lands at Puerto de Caballos—And Thence Proceeds to Iztapa—His Armament—He Sails for Mexico—His Defeat at Nochistlan—His Penitence, Death, and Last Will—Character of the Conqueror—Comparison of Traits with Those of Cortés—While above Pizarro He was far beneath Sandoval—His Delight in Bloodshed for its own Sake—The Resting-place and Epitaph—Alvarado's Progeny.
Of the events in Guatemala during the three years succeeding the arrival of Maldonado the chroniclers are somewhat silent. In a letter to the emperor, dated December 10, 1537, the viceroy Mendoza states that he had received from the oidor a report wherein the province is represented to be at peace and in a prosperous condition, and that other accounts had reached him representing the country to be well governed. If this were so Maldonado's character soon changed for the worse, for later we shall find in him much to his discredit.
THEY WILL NOT MARRY.
Early in 1538 a royal decree was received in the city of Santiago, ordering that all who held encomiendas were to marry within three years from the date of their notification, or to forfeit their Indians in favor of married persons.[XII‑1] This order met with general disapproval, and the cabildo petitioned the king to reconsider the matter. Eligible women, they said, could be found only in the city of Mexico, so remote from the province of Guatemala that the expense of the journey was beyond the means of most colonists. Many declined to marry because they would not link themselves with persons socially their inferiors,[XII‑2] while the small number of Indians assigned to some would prevent their supporting a family.
On his return from Spain in the following year Alvarado reports to the cabildo that, in company with his wife, come twenty maidens, well bred, the daughters of gentlemen of good lineage, and he expresses confidence that none of this merchandise will remain on his hands. But the venture does not meet with the success the adelantado anticipated. At one of the entertainments given in honor of his arrival, and at which, relates Vega,[XII‑3] many of the conquistadores were present, these damsels, who, concealed behind a screen in an adjoining apartment, were witnessing the festivities, commented on the appearance of their prospective husbands in the most disparaging terms. "They say," remarked one to her companions, "that these are to be our husbands." "What! marry those old fellows?" was the reply. "Let those wed them who choose; I will not; the devil take them! One would think by the way they are cut up that they just escaped from the infernal regions; for some are lame, some with but one hand, others without ears, others with only one eye, others with half their face gone, and the best of them have one or two cuts across the forehead." "We are not to marry them for their good looks," said a third, "but for the purpose of inheriting their Indians; for they are so old and worn out that they will soon die, and then we can choose in place of these old men young fellows to our tastes, in the same manner that an old broken kettle is exchanged for one that is new and sound."
Now it chanced that one of the 'old fellows' overheard what was said and told his companions. "Marry with them by all means," was his advice, and then he went and took to himself the daughter of a cacique.