That He Ought Not Meet With The Fate Of Narvaez, He Sent The
Doctor Zuazo To Mexico, To Endeavour To
Enter into treaty with Cortes.
Garay arrived in the Rio de las Palmas on St Jameses day, and sent
Goncalo
De Ocampo up the river to explore the country, who reported, on
his return, that the country was bad and desert. Yet Garay landed with
400 foot soldiers and some horse, and commanded John de Grijalva, to
explore the coast, while he marched by land to Panuco, in which march he
crossed a river to which he gave the name of Rio Montalto. In this march
he came to a large town, in which he found much poultry, to the great
refreshment of his troops. Here, likewise, he took some of the
inhabitants of Chila, whom he employed as messengers to different places.
After a long and difficult march, he arrived at Panuco, but found no
provisions; the country having been exhausted in the war with Cortes, and
by being plundered by the soldiers. From this place he sent Goncalo de
Ocampo to St Stephano, or Istevan del Puerto, to inquire if the garrison
would submit to his authority. They sent him a favourable answer; but, by
means of an ambush, they made forty of his cavalry prisoners, alleging
that they had come unwarrantably to usurp the government which belonged
to another. Besides this misfortune, Garay lost four of his ships, by
which he was greatly disheartened. While Cortes was preparing an
expedition to Panuco, to resist Garay, Francis de las Casas and Roderigo
de la Paz, brought letters-patent to Mexico, by which the emperor gave
him the government of New Spain, including Panuco. On this he desisted
from going personally on the expedition, but sent Pedro de Alvarado with
a respectable force, both of infantry and cavalry, to defend his
government against aggression, and dispatched Diego de Ocampo to
communicate the letters-patent to Garay; who thought it better for him to
yield himself to Cortes, and went accordingly to Mexico[48].
In the same year, 1523, Gil Goncales de Avila, discovered and peopled a
town called _San Gil da Buena-vista_, in lat. 14 deg. N. almost in the bottom
of the bay of Ascension or Honduras[49]. Likewise, on the 6th December of
this year, Peter de Alvarado was sent by Cortes from Mexico with 300 foot,
170 horse, four field-pieces, and some Mexican nobles, to discover and
conquer Quahutemallan, Utlatlan, Chiassa, Xochnuxco, and other towns
towards the South Sea. After a most fatiguing march of 400 leagues,
passing by Tecoantepec to Xochnuxco, he discovered and conquered the
whole of that country, where he built a city called St Jago de
Quahutemallan, now Guatimala, of which and of the country he subdued, he
is said to have got the government. In this expedition they passed some
rivers, the water of which was so hot that they could scarce endure to
wade them. They found likewise certain hills which produced alum, and one
out of which a liquor like oil distilled; likewise sulphur in great
abundance, from which the Spaniards made excellent gunpowder[50]. On the
8th December of the same year, Cortes sent Diego de Godoy, with a hundred
foot, thirty horse, two field-pieces, and many friendly Indians, to
Spiritu Santo; where, joining the captain of that town, they went to
Chamolla, the capital of a province of the same name, which they reduced
under subjection[51].
In February 1524, Cortes sent Roderigo Rangel, with 150 Spaniards, and
many Tlaxcallans and Mexicans, against the Zapotecas and Nixtecas, and
other provinces not yet well discovered. They were at first resisted, but
soon defeated the natives, and reduced the country to subjection. In the
same year, Roderigo de Bastidas was sent to discover and reduce the
country of Santa Martha; but refusing to allow the soldiers to plunder a
certain town, he was assassinated in his bed by Peter Villaforte,
formerly his fast friend, who joined in the conspiracy against him. Pedro
de Lugo and his son Don Alfonso were afterward governors of that place,
where they conducted themselves as covetous tyrants, and became much
disliked[52]. In the same year, the licentiate Lucas Vasques de Aillon
obtained the government of Chicora from the emperor, on which he fitted
out some vessels from St Domingo, and proceeded to explore and colonize
that country; but he was lost with all his people. I know not how it
should have happened, except by the righteous judgment of God, that so
little should now remain of all the gold and precious stones which were
got in the Antilles by the Spaniards; but much the greater part has been
dissipated to little purpose, and nothing great or valuable has ensued
from the discovery[53].
In this same year, 1524, Cortes sent a fleet under the command of
Christopher de Olid, to Cuba, to transport provisions and ammunition to
Mexico, which had been purchased there by Alonso de Contreras; and Olid
had orders to discover and colonize the country about Cape Higueras, and
the Coast of Honduras, and likewise to send Diego Hartado de Mendoca by
sea, in search of a strait towards Darien, which was reported to pass
that way into the South Sea, which object of research had been commanded
by the emperor to be attended to. He sent also two ships from Panuco, to
explore the coast from thence to Florida; and he commanded other vessels
to examine the coast of the South Sea, between Zacatullan and Panama. On
the arrival of Olid at Cuba, he entered into a league with Diego
Velasquez against Cortes: and, instead of prosecuting the orders he had
received, he set sail for Puerto de Cavallos, in lat. 10 deg. N. 54, near
which he built a town, which he named _Triumpho de la Cruz_. He made Gil
Gonzales de Avila prisoner, and killed his nephew, and all the Spaniards
who were with him, except one child; thus acting in direct opposition to
Cortes, who had expended, in fitting out the present expedition, the sum
of 80,000 castellans of gold, entirely to gratify Olid[55]. On learning
this treachery, Cortes went by land from Mexico in the month of October
1524, to take revenge on Olid, carrying with him a force of 300 Spaniards,
part foot, and part horse, and accompanied by Quahutimoc, king of Mexico,
and many of the chief Mexican nobles.
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