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. From Mexico he went to Vera Cruz,
where he embarked for Spain; but he and all his wealth went to the bottom,
as the vessel in which he sailed was lost in a storm.
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