May God Protect Us, And Inspire Our
Great Emperor To Cause His Just Intentions Towards Us To Be Carried Into
Effect.
To us, the ancient, wise, and brave conquerors of Mexico, it
appeared that Cortes ought to have duly considered
His true friends, who
had supported him from the first through all his difficulties and dangers,
and ought to have rewarded us according to our respective merits, and his
majesties orders, by giving us good and profitable situations, instead of
leaving us poor and miserable. By his majesties orders, and by his duty,
Cortes was bound to have given to us and our children all the good offices
in the kingdom of New Spain; but be thought only of himself and his
favourites. In our opinion, who were the conquerors, the whole country
ought to have been divided into five equal parts, allotting one to the
crown, another for the holy church, and the remaining three parts to
Cortes and the rest of us, who were the true original conquerors, giving
each a share in perpetuity in proportion to our rank and merits,
considering that we had not only served his majesty in gratuity, but
without his knowledge, and, almost against his will. This arrangement
would have placed us at our ease; instead of which, many of us are
wandering about, almost without a morsel to eat, and God only knows what
may become of our children.
To the veedor Pedro Alonzo Chirinos, Gonzalo Salazar the factor, Rodrigo
Albornos the contador, and many others who came now from Spain, and to the
dependents of great men, who flattered him and told him fine tales, Cortes
refused nothing; but he treated us the true conquerors like vassals,
forgetting us entirely in the distribution of property, yet never failing
to call upon us when he wanted our assistance, as if we had been fit only
for expeditions and battles. I do not blame him for being generous, as
there was enough for all; but he ought in the first place to have
considered those who had served his majesty in the conquest of this noble
kingdom, and to whose blood and valour he was indebted for his own
elevation. Long afterwards, when Luis Ponce de Leon came out to supersede
Cortes, we the veteran conquerors represented to our general that he ought
to give us that property which he had been ordered by his majesty to
resign. He expressed his sorrow for having so long neglected us, and
promised even with an oath, that he would provide for us all, if he
returned to his government, thinking to satisfy us with smooth words and
empty promises.
[1] This probably alludes to _lawyers_, as on a former occasion, Diaz
mentions a request from the Spaniards that none of that fraternity
might be sent over to New Spain, probably to avoid the introduction of
litigious law suits. - E.
SECTION XIX.
_Of an Expedition against the Zapotecas, and various other Occurrences_.
Intelligence was brought to Mexico that the Zapotecas were in rebellion,
on which Rodrigo Rangel, whom I have several times mentioned already,
solicited Cortes to be appointed to the command of an expedition for their
reduction, that he too might have an opportunity of acquiring fame,
proposing likewise to take Pedro de Ircio along with him as his lieutenant
and adviser.
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