78

Hernandez de Córdova Beheaded.

B. XIII. of Hernandez must have infuriated the ancient

Ch. I.

Governor. Old as he was, he had always a certain vigour when there was anything severe or decisive to be done. He proceeded at once into Nicaragua, and held a court martial on his unfortunate lieuteDe Córdova nant, who made no attempt to escape, and who was forthwith convicted and beheaded.

beheaded.

1526.

The fate of Francisco Hernandez de Córdova is a little like that of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, and the same argument was used by the friends of both these commanders to substantiate their innocence. Why, it was asked, if they were guilty, should they have so confidingly placed themselves in the power of this fierce and arbitrary man?

But if the foregoing account be true, it would be difficult to maintain that Francisco Hernandez had preserved his fidelity. It must, however, be admitted that for De Córdova to listen to the overtures from the Audiencia of Hispaniola, which were in some measure commands, was a very different thing from setting up an independent government for himself, without any reference to regal or vice-regal authority.

Nothing could have been more ill-advised on the part of the Spanish Government than their suffering a mere accident, like the death of Lope de Sosa, to prevent them from carrying out their original intentions of superseding a Governor, competent only to acts of cruelty, like Pedrarias. From 1519, however, to the year 1526, Pedrarias supersedes remained in power, at which time Pedro de los July, 1526. Rios arrived to supersede him, and to take the usual residencia.

Pedro de

Los Rios

Pedrarias,

Pedro de los Rios was naturally induced by B. XIII. Pedrarias to consider Nicaragua as part of the Government of Darien, and to go thither himself in order to secure its occupation. But the unhappy province was not so easily to be disposed of. A new pretender, also with some show of authority from head-quarters, was already in the field, and had secured a firm hold upon the province. This was no other than the recentlyappointed Governor of the neighbouring state of The Honduras, Diego Lopez de Salcedo, a man of Honduras some importance, as he was the nephew of the lays claim celebrated Ovando. He ordered Pedro de los ragua. Rios to quit the province directly, and the Governor of Darien was obliged to yield at once to superior force.

Governor of

to Nica

The Court of Spain must now have been informed of these things, and the Ministers ordered that the Governor of Darien should keep to his limits of Darien, and the Governor of Honduras to his limits of Honduras, while they made Nicaragua into a separate government, conferring it, however, on one of the worst persons who could have been chosen for the office-namely, Pedrarias. The New World, therefore, was not to be freed from the presence of this implacable old man. Pedrarias It was in 1527 that he was appointed Governor of Governor Nicaragua (Gil Gonçalez had died), and he re- Nicaragua mained in power at Nicaragua until the day of his 17: death, which occurred at Leon in the year 1530.

The foregoing narrative sufficiently describes the dire confusion which prevailed in Nicaragua amongst the Spanish authorities-a confusion

appointed

of

Dies in

1530.

Ch. I.

of the Ni

caraguans.

80

*

Sufferings of the Nicaraguans.

B. XIII. that was sure to have its counterpart in burnings, massacres, and tortures amongst the conquered Sufferings people. They paid the penalty for every error committed at the Court of Spain, for every movement prompted by avarice, envy, or discord, which took place amongst the Spanish captains, each of whom had some show of authority from head-quarters, and whose marchings, countermarchings, and battles were marked upon the broad map of that fertile province, unhappily well suited to the movements of cavalry, in huge streaks of blood and devastation.

They consult their

idols.

It was in vain that the unhappy Indians of Nicaragua consulted their idols, and prayed for a response to the question, how they were to get rid of these strangers. The discerning oracles replied that if they were to heap the sea upon these Spaniards, they would certainly drown; but then, to do that, it would be necessary for the Nicaraguans to drown themselves,-whereupon, they did not question their oracles any further in this matter.†

The evils attending the occupation of Nicaragua seem at first sight to accuse the Spanish Government loudly of want of wisdom in not

*"Con la mudança de tantos governadores, y diferencias pasadas entre los capitanes Castellanos de Nicaragua, estavan los Indios muy discontentos, porque se les guardava poca justicia, y avia dos años que no dormian con sus mugeres, porque no pariessen esclavos para los Castellanos." HERRERA, Hist. de las Indias, d. 4, 1. 3, c. 2.

"Preguntaron á los ydolos, que como echarian de sí aquellos estrangeros; respondieron que les hecharian la mar encima que los ahogasse, pero que tambien se avian de ahogar ellos, y assí no trataron mas desta demanda.” -HERRERA, Hist. de las Indias, dec. 4, lib. 3, cap. 2.

Conduct of the Court of Spain.

81

taching to

the Spanish

ment.

foreseeing and providing against the confusion B. XIII, which must follow from an intermingling of Ch. 1. delegated authorities. Did the Government Blame atsuppose that human nature in the colonies was different from human nature at home? Govern. Did they not foresee that questions of boundary, even amongst well-disposed governors of contiguous provinces, would alone be sure to lead to the direst disputes? Again, did they not anticipate that these roving expeditions would be likely to travel out of all bounds of authority, unless their duties and responsibilities were defined with the strictest accuracy? If this one law had been laid down-that no governor should be an explorer on his own account,-it would have been an incalculable benefit to the Indies.

To these questions it must be replied that, though there may be some foundation for severe comment, it is always to be recollected that the events in the Indies were too extensive, sudden, and complicated for any government to deal with certainly for any government which did not give its whole attention to its colonies. The Spanish Court seldom heard of things at the Much right moment. Something had been done in the interim, which often rendered the orders they sent out nugatory or mischievous. It was a state of affairs in which, except at the very first, the monarchs and statesmen who had to deal with it were never, to use an expressive modern phrase, "masters of the situation."

Moreover, the truth is, that, though at first sight it may appear that there were too many

excuse for

them.

Ch. I.

B. XIII. king's officers in the Indies, there were in reality far too few. A special service for the Indies ought instantly to have been organized; and it may be taken for a fact, that all the governments of Europe could not at that day have furnished a sufficient number of governing persons to take the rule of the millions of subjugated Indians suddenly deprived of the Indians lords and masters who, in some fashion or other, masterless. had guided and governed them for genera

The

left

tions. Never, not even in the worst times of the Roman Empire, were men left more masterless. There were innumerable sheep: there were many wolves and there were very few shepherds.

The last historical fact mentioned, the death of Pedrarias, cannot be passed by without comment. For sixteen years this old man had been a principal figure in the Indies. By the mischief he had done (for history is obliged to take note of men according to the weight of their deeds, whether for good or evil), he played a part not much inferior in magnitude to that of men who have acquired large and just renown, such as Cortes, Vasco Nuñez, or Pizarro. Pedrarias had been a page of John the Second of Castille, Queen Isabella's father, who died in 1454, which shows Pedrarias. that Pedrarias could not have been far from ninety when he died. "Considering his decrepitude," says OVIEDO, "his errors would have some excuse, if they had not been so cruel."*

The great

age of

To have such testimony as that of Oviedo

É assí haciéndole decrépito avrán alguna excusa sus errores, si no fueran tan crueles."-OVIEDO, Hist. Gen. y Nat. de Indias, lib. 29, cap. 34.