On This Account, And By The Advice Of Olmedo,
Cortes Gave Him The Command Of The District Of Guatitlan, One
Of the most
profitable in New Spain, and also made him a considerable present of gold,
and many flattering words
And promises by which he gained him over
entirely to his interest, insomuch that he sent him soon afterwards into
Spain as his agent, carrying a large quantity of gold, pearls, and jewels
to the emperor, together with several gigantic human bones that were found
in a temple at Cojohuacan, similar to those which had been formerly sent
from Tlascala, as already mentioned[3]. Besides these things, he carried
over three Mexican tigers, and many other curious things which I do not
now remember. One part of the business of this agency, was to carry a
memorial from the _cabildo_ of Mexico, and from us the conquerors of New
Spain, soliciting to be supplied with bishops and clergy of holy life and
exemplary manners, and requesting that all offices of honour and emolument
might be conferred on us who had conquered this vast empire for our
sovereign, and that the supreme government might be confided to our
general Cortes. We requested that his majesty might be pleased to prohibit
any lawyers from coming among us, who would throw us into confusion with
their learned quibbles; and we farther represented the insufficient
commission of Christoval de Tapia, who had been sent out by the Bishop of
Burgos, merely for the purpose of effectuating a marriage between him and
the bishops niece. We deprecated the interference of the bishop in the
affairs of New Spain, which had already obstructed our efforts of conquest
in the service of his majesty, and had manifested great enmity against us
by prohibiting the Casa de Contratation of Seville from sending us any
supplies. We concluded by declaring ourselves ready to receive his
majesties commands with the most perfect submission and obedience, but that
we had deemed it our bounden duty to lay all these particulars before his
majesty, which had hitherto been artfully kept from his knowledge. On his
part, Cortes sent a memorial to the king of twenty-one pages long, in
which he left no argument unemployed to serve his own and our interest. He
even requested permission to go over to the island of Cuba, and to send
the governor Velasquez a prisoner to Spain, that he might be tried and
punished for the injuries he had done to the public service, and
especially for having sent an order to put Cortes to death.
Our agents sailed from Vera Cruz on the 20th December 1522, and no
particular occurrence happened on the voyage to the Terceras or Acores,
except that one of the tigers broke loose and wounded some of the sailors,
who were likewise obliged to kill the other on account of its ferocity. At
the island of Tercera, Captain Quinones lost his life in a duel,
occasioned by a quarrel about a lady, by which means our business was left
in the hands of Alonzo de Avila. In continuing his voyage to Europe, he
was taken by a French privateer, commanded by one Jean Florin, who took
another ship from Hispaniola with a valuable cargo of sugar and hides, and
20,000 crowns in gold, and many pearls; so that with this and our treasure
he returned very rich to France, where he made magnificent presents to the
king and admiral of France, astonishing every body at the magnificence of
the presents which we had transmitted for our emperor. The king of France
observed on this occasion, that the wealth which we supplied from New
Spain was alone sufficient to enable our sovereign to wage war against him,
although Peru was not then discovered. It was also reported that the king
of France sent a message to our emperor, saying, That as he and the king
of Portugal had divided the world between them, he desired to see the will
of our father Adam, to know if he had made them exclusively his heirs. In
his next expedition, Florin was made prisoner by a strong squadron
belonging to Biscay, and was hanged in the island of Teneriffe.
Avila was made a close prisoner in France, but by gaining the friendship
of the officer to whose custody he had been confided, he was enabled to
correspond with his friends in Spain, to whom he transmitted all the
documents with which he had been entrusted, which were all laid before the
emperor Don Carlos by Martin Cortes, our generals father, and Diego de
Ordas, by means of the licentiate Nunez, _relator_ of the royal council,
who was cousin to Cortes. The emperor was pleased, on due consideration of
these documents, to order that all favour should be shewn to our general,
and that the proceedings respecting the government of New Spain should be
suspended until his majesty returned into Spain.
We were much disappointed on receiving intelligence of the loss of our
treasure, and the detention of our agent in France; yet Cortes honourably
reserved the district of Guatitlan for Avila, notwithstanding his
captivity, and gave it three years afterwards to a brother of Alonzo de
Avila, who was then promoted to be _contador_ of Yucutan.
[1] The province here named Panuco, is situated on the coast of the gulf
of Mexico, at the mouth of a considerable river which drains the
superfluous waters of the Mexican vale, named at first Rio del Desague,
then Rio de Tula, and Rio Tampico at its mouth, in about lat. 22 deg. 15'
N. The Modern town of Panuco is about 200 miles almost due north from
Mexico. - E.
[2] These were probably the Chichimecas and Otomies, who inhabited to the
north-west of the Mexican empire. - E.
[3] From these slight notices, nothing certain can be gathered respecting
these large bones: Yet there is every reason to believe they must have
been of the same kind with those now familiar to the learned world,
under the name of _Mammoth_. The vale of Mexico has every indication
of having once been an immense inland lake, and the other _big bones_
of North America have all been found in places of a similar
description.
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