21

Occupation of Mexico by the Spaniards. markable fact that the Tezcucans were largely employed* in this rebuilding, thus fulfilling, at least partially, a prophecy made by the Mexicans in the height of the war.t The labor was great, food was very scarce, and numbers of the workmen died from the effects of famine. It is worthy of note that they brought the materials for building on their shoulders, or dragged them along by sheer force,‡ and their only comfort during these great exertions seems to have been in working to the sound of music.§

Cortez did not accomplish all these great works without the envy that belongs to such men and such deeds. The white walls of the palaces of Cuyoacan were blackened each morning by malicious pasquinades in poetry and prose. Some said that the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the sea, had their courses, and if sometimes they went out of these courses, they nevertheless returned to their original state, and that so it would have to be with the ambition of Cortez. Others said that the soldiers should not call themselves the Conquistadores of New Spain,

Provincias, que lo será tambien de aquí adelante."-LORENZANA, p. 307.

* 66 Hiço Señor del Cuzco (Tezcuco) á Don Carlos Iztlixuchitl, con voluntad, í pedimento de la Ciudad, por muerte de Don Hernando su Hermano, í mandóle traer en la obra los mas de sus Vasallos, por ser Carpinteros, Canteros, í Obreros de Casas."-GOMARA, Crónica de la Nueva-España, cap. 162. BARCIA, Historiadores, tom. ii.

+ See ante, vol. ii., book xi., p. 462.

The great architectural works of nations in the olden time indicate an utter prodigality of human life, and declare the largeness of the despotic power under which men worked.

"El trabajo fué grande; cá traian acuestas, ó arrastrando, la Piedra, la Tierra, la Madera, Cal, Ladrillos, í todos los otros materiales. Pero era mucho de ver los Cantares, í Musica que tenian. El apellidar su Pueblo, í Señor, í el motejarse unos á otros."-GOMARA, Cróni ca de la Nueva-España, cap. 162. BARCIA, Historiadores, tom. ii.

22

Arrival of Cristoval de Tapia.

but the conquered of Cortez (conquistados de Hernando Cortés). Others wrote,

"Alas! how sad a soul I bear,

Until I see what is my share."*

Cortez, who could use his pen as well as his sword, was not backward in replying to his maligners; and he wittily wrote up "A white wall, the paper of fools" (Pared blanca, papel de necios). Finally, however, the practice of scribbling these things on the walls rose to such a height that Cortez was obliged to exercise his authority in forbidding it altogether.

Another disagreeable episode in the affairs of Cortez was the arrival of an obscure man, named Cristoval de Tapia, as Governor of New Spain. This appointment was the work of the Bishop of Burgos, who, whether he thwarted Las Casas, or, with much less injustice, condemned the proceedings of Cortez, was always in the wrong. Cortez himself made some show of obeying Tapia, but the friends of Cortez would not listen to this man's taking upon him so important a charge, and he was obliged to quit New Spain. This transaction is worth mentioning only as showing amid what interruptions and vexations Cortez worked out his great achievements. It was not until three years and four months after Cortez had been elected captain general by his followers, in the council held at Vera Cruz,† that he was appointed by the court of Spain governor and captain general, in a dispatch dated at Valladolid the 15th of October, 1522.

A further trouble to the administration of Cortez,

*"O que triste está el alma mia,

Hasta que la parte vea."

BERNAL DIAZ, cap. 157.

† See vol. ii., book x., p. 251.

Memorial of the "Conquistadores."

23

which also is worth mentioning only as showing the nature of the difficulties he had to contend with, was the revolt of Panuco, a province to the northeast of Mexico. Cortez went to Panuco himself, and succeeded, after several encounters with the Indians, in subduing them and pacificating the province.

Soon after his return from this expedition Cortez dispatched messengers to Spain to urge his own claims and those of the Conquistadores; who also, on their own account, sent a memorial to the Emperor.

These messengers did not go empty-handed. They were commissioned to take the Emperor eighty-eight thousand pesos in gold bars, and the wardrobe of the late monarch of Mexico, Montezuma, which was rich with jewels, among them some pearls the size of hazelnuts. These treasures never reached the court of Spain, for they were captured by a French corsair named Jean Florin. They probably, however, did as much good to the Emperor as if they had been spent upon his armies, for they served to give the King of France some intimation of the wealth which the King of Spain was likely to draw from the Indies. The dispatches had been intrusted to a man of the name of Alonso de Avila, who, though taken prisoner, contrived to have these valuable documents conveyed to some friends of Cortez in Spain, whence they were forwarded to his majesty the Emperor in Flanders. The exact time of Alonso de Avila's departure from Vera Cruz was the 20th of December, 1522.

The petition from the Conquistadores gave an account of the siege, besought his majesty to send to New Spain a bishop, and monks of all the different orders, explained their own conduct in not receiving Tapia, prayed that the government of New Spain might be

24

Memorial of the "Conquistadores"

conferred upon Cortez (the news of his appointment as governor had not yet reached them), and asked, on their own account, that all the royal offices in the new colony might be given to them.

The above, however, are not the points in the memorial which are most curious, and which most require to be dwelt upon.

The world is so torn by differences of opinion, that it is always very interesting, and somewhat delightful, to find any one subject upon which there is singular unanimity. Now there was something wherein the Spanish conquerors and colonists universally agreed. Biscayan, Estremaduran, Andalusian, Castilian-men who had various points of difference, and numberless provincial jealousies-concurred in one request. As soon as any colony was in the least degree established in the New World, the colonists, almost in their first communication with their sovereign, were sure to entreat him to prohibit.lawyers from coming out to them. The following brief notices will serve to indicate this remarkable unanimity.

In 1516 the commissioners from Cuba to the court succeeded in obtaining an order that lawyers should not be allowed to go there, because, since some had gone thither, lawsuits had arisen among the inhabitants.*

The words of VASCO NUÑEZ from the Terra-firma in 1513 are so remarkable that they must be repeated here. "One thing I supplicate your highness, for it is much to your service, and that is, that you would

* "Cuios Procuradores Antonio Velazquez, í Panfilo de Narvaez, haviendo pedido muchas cosas, al cabo alcançaron, que porque de haver pasado Letrados á Cuba, havian nacido Pleitos entre los Vecinos, que no pasasen mas, í que los que en ella estaban no abogasen."-HerRERA, Hist. de las Indias, dec. ii., lib. ii., cap. 8.

give orders, under a great penalty, that no bachelor of law, or of any thing else, except medicine, should be allowed to come to these parts of the Terra-firma, for no bachelor comes here who is not a devil, and who does not lead the life of a devil; and not only are they bad themselves, but they also make and contrive a thousand lawsuits and iniquities. This regulation would be greatly for your highness's service, for the land is new.

The prejudice against lawyers was probably communicated by the early Spanish conquerors to the inhabitants of the conquered nations. In a memorable rebellion that took place in the island of Hispaniola, which began in the year 1519, and was not finally quelled until the year 1533, predatory bands of fugitive Indians roamed about the island and harassed the Spaniards, who, from warriors, had become peaceful colonists and industrious growers of sugar. On one occasion, a young Spaniard, who had been captured by some of these revolters, and had been sentenced by them to lose his right hand, besought his captors to cut off the left hand instead, whereupon the Indian in charge of the execution replied with these convincing words: "You are a lawyer. Be thankful that they do not slay you, and have patience.” This anecdote was related by the sufferer himself to the historian Oviedo.t

In the agreement made by the Emperor with Pizarro, in 1529, respecting the discovery of Peru, it was

* NAVARRETE, Col., tom. iii., p. 374.

+"Yo le vi sin la mano.... él le rogó que no le cortassen la mano derecha, sino la ezquierda; é el Tamayo le dixo assí: ' 'Bachiller soys: agradesçed que no os matan é aved paçiençia.'"-OVIEDO, Hist. Gen. y Nat. de Indias, lib. v., cap. 4.

VOL. III.-B