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. On coming to the town of Spiritu
Santo, he procured ten guides from the caciques of Tavasco and Xicalanco,
who likewise gave him a map painted on cotton cloth, delineating the
situation of the whole country, from Xicalanco to Naco and Nito, and even
as far as Nicaragua, with their mountains, hills, fields, meadows, rivers,
cities, and towns; and Cortes ordered three ships from the harbour of
Medellin to follow him along the coast[56]. When he had reached the city
of Izancanac, Cortes learned that King Quahutimoc and his Mexicans had
conspired to betray or destroy him and his Spaniards; wherefore he hanged
the king and two of his principal nobles.
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