It will be needless to recount in detail the rest of Gil Gonçalez's discoveries. Suffice it to say, that they were sufficient to entitle him fairly to the claim of being the discoverer of Nicaragua. B. XIII. the Nica The Nicaraguans, it appears, were of Mexican Origin of origin. They had been driven southwards by a raguans. great drought; and if so, they had certainly fled to a country preeminently abounding in the element they then needed. But this tradition is not the only ground for ascribing to them, or at least to one tribe amongst them, an affinity with the Mexicans. The language, and the mode of writing were in this case similar; and, though the religions+ of the two nations were not wholly alike, there was sufficient similarity to render far from improbable, if not to establish, the notion of a common origin.‡ The Nicaraguans were in that state of civilization which gives great promise of the gradual formation of an important empire. The edifices were not so grand as those of the Mexicans, but there was no want of skill in their buildings, or of polity in their laws. Still, they were in that "Dizen que huvo en los tiempos antiguos, en nueva España una gran seca, por lo qual se fueron por aquella mar Austral, á poblar á Nicaragua." -HERRERA, Hist. de las Indias, dec. 3, lib. 4, cap. 7. † One curious fact concerning their religion is noted-that the Nicaraguan priests who heard confessions were married.-" No se casan los Sacerdotes, sino los que oyen pecados agenos."- "Tenian pintadas sus leyes, 74 Return of Gil Gonçalez to Panama. B. XIII. state of comparatively low intelligence when men Ch. I. and women think they can improve the work of God, their own countenances, by piercing, and otherwise maltreating, their noses, lips, and ears.* Gil Panamá, June 25, 1523. Gil Gonçalez returned to Panamá on the 25th returns to of June 1523, with a large quantity of gold, and with the conviction that he had made a great discovery. He had also baptized no less than thirty thousand of the natives. What knowledge, however, of Christianity he had left amongst them may be imagined from the strange kind of soldierly theology which most of these captains displayed when they took upon them to commence the conversion of the natives. He proceeded, not without molestation from Pedrarias, to Hispaniola, whence, after communicating with the Emperor, and begging for the government of the lands he had discovered, he returned to Honduras. The object of Gil Gonçalez in going to Honduras was to find a way to Nicaragua which he might take without any hindrance from Pedrarias at Panamá. With the vessels he had brought from Hispaniola, Gil Gonçalez endeavoured to * "Los pueblos de Nicaragua | casas sobre árboles: los hombres no eran grandes, como avia son de buena estatura, mas blanmuchos, el edificio era con poli- cos que loros; las cabeças á cia: las casas de los señores eran tolondrones, con un oyo en medio, diferentes de las otras: en los por hermosura, y por assiento, y lugares de comun, eran todas las para carga: rapávanse la mitad casas yguales: los palacios, y tem- adelante, y los valientes toda, plos tenian grandes plaças, cer- salvo la coronilla: agujerávanse cadas de las casas de los nobles, las narizes, labios, y orejas, y y en medio tenian una casa de vestian casi como Mexicanos, y plateros, que labravan oro, y peynávanse el cabello."-HERvaciavan maravillosamente. En RERA, Hist. de las Indias, dec. algunas islas y rios, se vieron 3, lib. 4, cap. 7. Ch. 1. 76 Pedrarias' Expedition to Nicaragua. B. XIII. make the Puerto de Caballos, which received its name from an accident that happened to him on this occasion. A. storm came on when he was near that port; he was obliged to throw overboard some of his horses (caballos); and was driven back to the Golfo Dulce, where he landed, and founded the town of San Gil de Buenavista. Pedrarias sends De occupy Nicaragua. founds Brusselas, Meanwhile, Pedrarias, who held that the Córdova to newly-discovered country belonged to him, by reason of Espinosa's small discovery, sent his 1524 principal Captain, Francisco Hernandez de Córdova, with several other subordinate officers, to occupy Nicaragua and establish themselves De Córdova therein. Francisco Hernandez founded the towns of Brusselas, Granada, and Leon. One of his Granada, lieutenants encountered Gil Gonçalez (who had 1524 quitted San Gil and entered the province of Nicaragua by way of Honduras), and was defeated by him; but Gil Gonçalez ultimately retreated before the superior force of Francisco Hernandez, and retreats to proceeding to the settlement in Honduras which is made Christoval de Olid had formed by the orders of prisoner by Cortes, was treated by Olid as an enemy, and detained as a prisoner. and Leon. Gil Honduras: Olid. 1524. Francisco Hernandez, however, fared worse than the man he had driven out of his province; and his fate will curiously exemplify the confusion which beset the affairs of Nicaragua. As if that unhappy province were not sufficiently vexed by contending authorities and complicated government, the Audiencia of Hispaniola must now appear upon the scene. These auditors were, theoretically, the most powerful body in the New Proceedings of the "Audiencia" of Hispaniola. 77 Audiencia Hispaniola World. They acted in concert with the Admiral, B. XIII. Don Diego Columbus, the son of the great disco- Ch. 1. verer, and were by no means inclined to be inert in the general government of the Indies. Accordingly, when they heard of the rebellion of Olid, and of the entry into Nicaragua of Francisco Hernandez, they felt it their duty to take The cognizance of these disturbances to the general of weal of the Indies, and they sent a certain interfere. Bachiller of Law, named Pedro Moreno, to Honduras. He communicated with Francisco Hernandez, and appears to have suggested to that officer that he should hold his command directly from the Audiencia of Hispaniola. Such an opportunity of governing on his own account, instead of being a mere subordinate of Pedrarias, was probably too great a temptation for the fidelity of Hernandez to resist. He sent a party of men to carry his reply to Pedro Moreno, and it can scarcely be doubted that in that reply Hernandez went as far as to commence negociations with the Bachiller respecting the formation of an independent government. These men, to their astonishment, met with a division of the forces of Cortes (who had just completed his Honduras journey, and was at Truxillo), and were conducted to his presence. He appears to have received them favourably. Pedro Moreno had returned to Hispaniola, intending to come back with more troops. Meanwhile, some of the captains under Hernandez remained true to their master Pedrarias, and succeeded in quitting Nicaragua and reaching Panamá. Their account of the conduct |