How the insurgents gave the Indians permission to eat human flesh.
THE officers and Domingo de Irala, wishing to gain favour among the natives, gave them permission to kill and eat their Indian enemies. Many of those who availed themselves of this license were converted Christians. The insurgents had adopted this expedient, unbecoming to the service of God and His Majesty, and horrible to all who knew of it, in order to prevent the Indians from leaving the country, and attaching them to their party. They told them the governor was a bad man, inasmuch as he would not authorise their killing and eating their enemies, and that he had been arrested on that account, and that they now gave them free permission to do this.
In spite of all their efforts, the officers and Domingo de Irala, seeing that the tumults and quarrels would not cease, but were daily on the increase, decided to remove the governor from the province, while those who took this step chose to remain where they were and not return to Spain; they only desired to expel him and some of his friends. The partisans of the governor, on hearing this resolution, were much excited. They said that since the officers had usurped the power of deposing the governor and arresting him, and had given their supporters to understand that they would go with him to Spain, to explain their conduct to His Majesty, they must keep their promise, and if they all refused to go, that two, at all events, should accompany him, and that the other two might remain in the province. So they arranged it in that way, and, in order to take him to Spain, they equipped one of the brigantines which he had built for exploring and conquering the country. This gave rise to serious altercations, owing to the discontent that prevailed at seeing they were about to take Alvar Nuñez from the province. The officers resolved upon arresting the leaders of the malcontents, but durst not carry out their intention. In this dilemma they had again recourse to the governor, conjuring him to put an end to all the scandals and disorders; that if his friends would give their word not to attempt his release, that they on their side, and their magistrates, would promise not to arrest anybody, or do any injury to anybody, and would set those free whom they had arrested, and they swore it. As the governor had now been in prison a long time, and nobody had seen him, it was suspected and feared that they had secretly murdered him. They were accordingly asked to allow two monks and two gentlemen to enter his prison and see him, so that they might certify the people he was still alive. The officers promised they would do this three or four days before it was time for him to embark, but they broke their word.
[CHAPTER THE EIGHTY-THIRD.]
How the insurgents had to write to His Majesty and send him a report.
AT this juncture the officers prepared several memoirs to send to Spain, accusing the governor and making him odious to everybody. To lend a favourable colour to their own criminal acts, they wrote things that never happened and were entirely untrue. While the brigantine was being equipped for her voyage, the friends of the governor arranged with the carpenters to hollow a timber as big as a man’s thigh, and three spans long, and place inside it a general act of accusation which the governor had addressed to His Majesty, and other important papers collected by his friends when he was arrested. This packet was taken and enveloped in a waxed cloth, and the piece of timber was fastened to the poop of the brigantine with six nails above and six below. The carpenters said that they had placed it there to strengthen the brigantine, and the secret was kept so well that nobody discovered it. The master carpenter told a sailor of it, so that when the vessel arrived in Spain the documents might be taken out. It had been arranged with the officers that the governor should be seen by his friends before he embarked, but neither Captain Salazar nor anybody saw him. One night, towards midnight, Alonso Cabrera, the supervisor, and Pedro Dorantes, his factor, accompanied by a large number of arquebusiers, presented themselves at the prison; and each arquebusier carried three lighted fuses in his hand, so as to make the number appear greater than it was. Then Alonso Cabrera and Pedro Dorantes entered the room in which he lay; they seized him by the arm and lifted him out of the bed with the chains round his feet; he was very ill, almost to death. They carried him in this state to the gate leading into the street, and when he saw the sky, which he had not seen till then, he entreated them to let him render thanks to God. When he rose from his knees, two soldiers took him under the arms and carried him on board the brigantine, for he was extremely weak and crippled. When he saw himself in the midst of these people, he said to them: “Sirs, be my witnesses that I appoint, as my deputy, Juan de Salazar de Espinosa, that he may govern this province instead of me, and in the name of His Majesty, maintaining order and justice till the King should have been pleased to make other dispositions.” Hardly had he finished speaking than Garcia Vanegas, deputy treasurer, rushed upon him, dagger in hand, saying: “I do not recognise what you say; retract, or I will tear your soul from your body.” The governor had, however, been advised not to say what he did, because they were determined to kill him, and these words might have occasioned a great disturbance among them, and the party of the King might have snatched him from the hands of the others, everybody being then in the street. Garcia Vanegas having withdrawn a little, the governor repeated the same words; then Garcia sprang with great fury on the governor, and placed a dagger to his temple, saying to him as before: “Withdraw what you have said, or I will tear your soul from your body.” At the same moment he inflicted a slight wound on his temple, and pushed the people who were carrying the governor with so much violence that they fell with him, and one of them dropped his cap. After this they quickly raised him again, and carried him precipitately on board the brigantine. They closed the poop of the vessel with planks, put two chains on him which prevented him from moving; then they unmoored and descended the river.
Two days after the embarkation of the governor and the departure of the brigantine, Domingo de Irala, the accountant Philip de Caceres, and the factor Pedro Dorantes assembled their friends and attacked the house of Captain Salazar. They seized him and Pedro de Estopiñan Cabeza de Vaca, put them in irons, and sent them down the river to overtake the brigantine. These two officers were taken to Spain with him, and it is certain that if Captain Salazar had wished it the governor would not have been arrested, and still less would they have been able to take him out of the country and carry him to Castille; but, as he remained deputy governor, his conduct was not altogether frank. Cabeza de Vaca begged that two of his servants might be allowed to accompany him to prepare his food and attend upon him during the voyage. Accordingly they let the two servants go, not however to wait on him, but to row four hundred leagues on the river, for none could be found willing to do this work. They forced some of the people to come, others fled into the interior, and the property of such was confiscated and distributed among those that were pressed for the service. The officers did a very wrong thing during the voyage, and it was this: every two or three days they spread among their partisans and their friends a thousand calumnies against him, and finally said: “We have, as it is manifest, done you a great deal of good and acted for your advantage and that of the king, in consideration for this, sign this paper.” In this way they filled four quires of paper with signatures, and during the voyage down the river composed their calumnious statements while these who had signed their names to the paper remained at Ascension, three hundred leagues up the river. It was upon this document that the charges brought against the governor were framed.