He Put Many Other Spaniards To Death, Merely To Make Himself
Feared; And Set The Authority Of The Governor Of Mexico At Defiance.
Some
of the enemies of Cortes persuaded Estrada to represent to the court of
Spain, that he had been compelled by the influence of Cortes to associate
Sandoval with himself in the government, contrary to his inclination, and
to the detriment of his majesties service.
By the same conveyance, a
string of malevolent falsehoods were transmitted against the general; as
that he had poisoned Garay, De Leon, and Aguilar; that he had endeavoured
to administer arsenic in cheese-cakes to a great number of people at a
feast; that he was plotting the deaths of the veedor and factor Chirinos
and Salazar, then in jail; and that he had procured the death of his wife,
Donna Catalina. All these lies were supported by the industry of the
contador Albornos, then in Spain: And, in consequence of these gross
falsehoods, Cortes was partly judged unheard; as orders were sent to
release Salazar and Chirinos; and Pedro de la Cueva, commendator-major of
Alcantara, was ordered to go out to Mexico with an escort of three hundred
soldiers at the expence of Cortes, with authority to put Cortes to death
if his guilt were proved, and to distribute his property among the veteran
conquerors of Mexico. This was to have been done, however, under the
authority of a court of royal audience, which was to be sent out to Mexico;
but all ended in nothing; as neither De la Cueva nor the court of royal
audience made their appearance.
Estrada was greatly elated by the countenance he received at court, which
he attributed to his being considered as a natural son of the Catholic
king. He disposed of governments at his pleasure, and carried every thing
with a high hand. At this time he sent his relation Mazoriejos to inquire
into the conduct of Don Juan Enriquez de Guzman in Chiapa, who is said to
have made more plunder there than was proper. He sent also a force against
the Zapotecas and Mixtecas, under the command of one De Barrios, said to
be a brave soldier who had served in Italy. I do not mean De Barrios of
Seville, the brother-in-law of Cortes. This officer marched with a hundred
men against the Zapotecas; but they surprised him, one night, and slew
himself and seven of his soldiers. Such was the difference between these
raw half formed soldiers, who were ignorant of the stratagems of the enemy,
and us the veteran conquerors. One Figuero, a particular friend of Estrada,
was sent with a hundred new soldiers to the province of Oaxaca. On passing
through the country of the Zapotecas, Figuero fell into a dispute with one
Alonzo de Herrera, who had been sent to command there by the late governor
Aguilar, in which Figuero and three soldiers were wounded. Finding himself
unable for the field, and that his soldiers were unfit for expeditions
among the mountains, Figuero thought proper to search for the sepulchres
of the ancient chiefs, on purpose to appropriate the gold which used to be
buried along with them; by which means he collected above an hundred
thousand crowns, and returned with this wealth to Mexico, leaving the
province in a worse state than before.
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