76

Pedrarias' Expedition to Nicaragua.

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 hinderance from Pedrarias at Panamá. With the vessels he had brought from Hispaniola, Gil Gonçalez endeavored to 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.

Meanwhile Pedrarias, who held that the newly-discovered country belonged to him, by reason of Espinosa's small discovery, sent his principal captain, Francisco Hernandez de Córdova, with several other subordinate officers, to occupy Nicaragua and establish themselves therein. Francisco Hernandez founded the towns of Brusselas, Granada, and Leon. One of his lieutenants encountered Gil Gonçalez (who had 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, proceeding to the settlement in Honduras which Cristoval de Olid had formed by the orders of Cortez, was treated by Olid as an enemy and detained as a prisoner.

Francisco Hernandez, however, fared worse than the man he had driven out of his province, and his fate

78 Proceedings of the "Audiencia" of Hispaniola.

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 World. They acted in concert with the admiral, Don Diego Columbus, the son of the great discoverer, 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 cognizance of these disturbances to the general weal of the Indies, and they sent a certain 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 negotiations with the bachiller respecting the formation of an independent government. These men, to their astonishment, met with a division of the forces of Cortez (who had just completed his Honduras journey, and was at Truxillo), and were conducted to his presence. appears to have received them favorably. Pedro Moreno had returned to Hispaniola, intending to come back with more troops.

He

Meanwhile, some of the captains under Hernandez

Hernandez de Córdova beheaded.

-79

remained true to their master Pedrarias, and succeeded in quitting Nicaragua and reaching Panamá. Their account of the conduct of Hernandez must have infuriated the ancient governor. Old as he was, he had always a certain vigor when there was any thing severe or decisive to be done. He proceeded at once into Nicaragua, and held a court-martial on his unfortunate lieutenant, who made no attempt to escape, and who was forthwith convicted and beheaded.

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 remained in power, at which time Pedro de los Rios arrived to supersede him, and to take the usual residencia.

Pedro de los Rios was naturally induced by Pedra

80

Confusion in Nicaragua.

rias 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 neighboring state of Honduras, Diego Lopez de Salcedo, a man of some importance, as he was the nephew of the celebrated Ovando. He ordered Pedro de los Rios to quit the province directly, and the Governor of Darien was obliged to yield at once to superior force.

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. It was in 1527 that he was appointed Governor of Nicaragua (Gil Gonçalez had died), and he remained in power at Nicaragua until the day of his death, which occurred at Leon in the year 1530.

The foregoing narrative sufficiently describes the dire confusion which prevailed in Nicaragua among the Spanish authorities—a confusion that was sure to have its counterpart in burnings, massacres, and tortures among the conquered people.* They paid the penalty

* "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