At This Period A Proclamation Was Issued, By Which All The Soldiers Were
Ordered To Bring In The Indian Prisoners To Be Branded, And To Pay For
Them The Royal Dues.
I have already mentioned the treatment we formerly
met with at Tepeaca on a similar occasion, but we were worse used now at
Tezcuco if possible.
In the first place a fifth was taken away for the
king; then another fifth for Cortes; and, what was still worse, most of
the good female slaves were abstracted during the night. We had been
promised that all the slaves should be rated according to their value; but
the officers of the crown valued them as they thought proper, and at a
most exorbitant rate. In consequence of this, the poor soldiers for the
future passed their slaves as servants, denying that they were prisoners
of war, to avoid the heavy duty; and such as were in favour with Cortes,
often got their slaves marked privately, paying him the composition. Many
of the slaves who happened to fall to bad masters, or such as had a bad
reputation, used to run away; but their owners always remained debtors for
their estimated value in the royal books, so that many were more in debt
on this account than all the value of their share in the prize gold could
pay for. About this time likewise, a ship arrived at Villa Rica from Spain
with arms and gunpowder, in which came Julian de Alderete, who was sent
out as royal treasurer. In the same vessel came the elder Orduna, who
brought out five daughters after the conquest, all of whom were honourably
married. Fra Melgarejo de Urrea, also, a Franciscan friar, came in this
vessel, bringing a number of papal bulls, to quiet our consciences from
any guilt we might have incurred during our warfare: He made a fortune of
these in a few months, and returned to Spain. Several other persons came
by this vessel, among whom were, Antonio Caravajal, who still lives in
Mexico, though now very old; Geronimo Ruyz de la Mora; one Briones who was
hanged about four years afterwards for sedition at Guatimala; and Alonzo
Diaz, who now resides in Valladolid. We learned by this ship, with
infinite satisfaction, that the bishop of Burgos had been deprived of all
power over the affairs of the West Indies, as his majesty had been much
displeased with his conduct in regard to our expedition, after having
received a true account of our eminent services.
Scarcely were we apprised of the success of the inhabitants of Chalco and
their confederates, when a new urgent message arrived from Chalco for
assistance against a fresh invasion of the Mexicans. The brigantines
intended for securing the command of the lake were now ready to launch,
and we were all anxious to commence the siege of Mexico, yet Cortes was
sensible of the importance of Chalco to the success of our ultimate
operations, and determined to march in person to its support.
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