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:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 232 of 796
Words from 63751 to 64030
of 221091
