The "Residencia" of Cortez. 153 were not wanting people-to use a Spanish phrase of that day-who probably believed and loudly asserted that the new governor had been poisoned by the man he came to supersede. This accusation, no doubt, traveled, with all the swiftness of malignity, to the Spanish court. Calumny, which can not only make a cloud seem like a mountain, but can almost transform a cloud into a mountain, was often busy with the name of Cortez. This is the third time-I almost scorn to mention it -that he was accused of poisoning persons whose existence was supposed to be inconvenient to him.* Any man, however, who is much talked of, will be much misrepresented. Indeed, malignant intention is, unhappily, the least part of calumny, which has its sources in idle talk, playful fancies, gross misapprehensions, utter exaggerations, and many other rivulets of error that sometimes flow together into one huge river of calumniation, which pursues its muddy, mischievous course unchecked for ages. Meanwhile, in Mexico, it was immediately a subject of discussion, as might have been foreseen, whether Ponce de Leon could delegate the power he had received from the Emperor. That question, after many juntas (for the disputed point is a difficult one), was determined in favor of Marcos de Aguilar, who was accordingly accepted as the governor. There is always, however, a loss of power in these transmissions of authority. The loss was not of much importance in the present case, for Marcos de Aguilar was a sickly man,† * Francisco de Garay, and Catharine de Xuarez, the first wife of Cortez, were said to have been poisoned by him. These reports were utterly without foundation. + "Estava tan doliente y hético, que le dava de mamar una muger 154 The "Residencia" of Cortez. and the charge of such a difficult government so rapidly augmented his malady that he died about two months after his appointment. Again Cortez seemed to be delivered, by a happy accident, from the troubles of his residencia. Before his death, Marcos de Aguilar had, in his turn, taken care to nominate a successor, and had chosen the treasurer, Alonzo de Estrada. The question respecting the delegation of authority was renewed, and much disputed over. The result, too, was different, for it was at last agreed upon that Estrada should govern, but in concert with Gonzalo de Sandoval, and that Cortez should have charge of the government of the Indians and of the war department. Indeed, it appears as if the main body of the civil servants of Mexico wished that Cortez should resume the whole power which he had held before the arrival of Ponce de Leon until the Emperor should decide what was to be done. But Cortez very prudently refused, saying that "his fidelity and singleness of purpose would thus be more clearly manifested." This was the more self-denying on the part of Cortez, as it is probable, from what afterward occurred, that he knew he should find no friend in Alonzo de Estrada, although this was the same man in whom Cortez had placed such confidence, and whom he had left in authority when he undertook the journey to Honduras. Alonzo de Estrada had not been long in office before a matter of dispute, originally trifling, arose, which carried the enmity of the governor and Cortez to a great height. An inhabitant of Mexico, named Diego de Figueroa, had a violent quarrel with Cristoval Cortejo, a servant of Sandoval, and therefore a dependent de Castilla, y tenia unas cabras que tambien bebia leche dellas."-BERNAL DIAZ, cap. 193. Banishment of Cortez. 155 of Cortez. From words they proceeded to blows, and Figueroa was wounded. Estrada, with the utmost rashness, listening only to one side, and pronouncing sentence within an hour after the affair had occurred, ordered Cortejo's left hand to be cut off, and, after it had been cut off, sent him to prison, in order to enforce his departure from Mexico the next day, a punishment which the furious governor resolved to inflict, in addition to the mutilation that the poor man had already suffered. Not satisfied with this, Estrada, fearing that Cortez would not bear quietly such treatment of a follower, sent a notification to Cortez himself that he should quit Mexico, and, under penalty of his life, should not venture to contravene this order. The whole city was inflamed with rage at the conduct of the governor, and the inhabitants rushed to place themselves at the disposal of Cortez, threatening open rebellion; but Cortez, ever cautious, only hastened the more to depart, while the people were striving to prevent his departure. Cortez having gone, and the inhabitants of Mexico being in the highest state of rage and disgust, the elements of a civil war were actively at work, when certain monks of the Order of St. Dominic, who, at the request of Cortez, had been sent from Spain in the company of Ponce de Leon, now interposed to check the tumult and to assuage the fury of the contending parties. Most of these monks had, like Ponce de Leon, been very ill on their arrival in the country; but the two who were most able to exert themselves on this occasion, Fathers Tomas Ortiz and Domingo de Betanzos—the second a name that will frequently occur in this history-succeeded in reconciling Cortez and Estrada, so much so that Cortez "drew out of the font" 156 Failure of Ponce de Leon's Instructions. -to use an expression of those days-an infant son of Estrada, who had just been born, and, according to the narrator of this story, ever afterward the two great men were loving gossips, "that being a relationship,' he adds, "of close alliance in those times, and not a little in these."* وو These quarrels among the powerful men of Mexico have less interest for us than they otherwise would, from the unfamiliarity of the names, and because some of the personages merely flit across the path of history. Else, to say the truth, all quarrels among men are very interesting to mankind, from the low streetbrawl created by two viragoes, and regarded with exceeding interest by the passers-by, up to the courtly feuds of great ministers and powerful princes, which are carefully studied in all their details by philosophic historians. In the present instance there were many persons interested in having the instructions which Ponce de Leon brought out with him forgotten or laid aside, and those who should have principally attended to such matters of government were most involved in the general clamor and contention. And so, when Cortez returned to the city, and peace and order were again established, we do not find that any thing had been done, or was to be done, about the encomiendas of the Indians. Probably the authorities were waiting for fresh instructions from the court of Spain in this, as in other matters relating to the government of Mexico. The reconcilement of Cortez and Estrada took place in the year 1527. It does not seem, however, that, even if the political state of Mexico had been quiet and well-ordered * "Parentesco de grande union en aquellos tiempos, y no poco celebrado en estos."-REMESAL, Hist. de Chiapa y Guatemala, lib. i., cap. 8. "Encomiendas" allowed by Spain. 157 in the years 1526 and 1527, any movement for doing away with encomiendas would have met with warm favor at court; for it is to be noticed that in 1527 a certain Francisco de Montejo, an old companion of Cortez, undertaking the "pacification" (as it was called) of Yucatan, his orders allowed him to give the Indians in encomienda; though, at the same time, it was provided that this should be done with the consent of the clerigos and religiosos who should go with him. HERRERA says that this permission to give the Indians. in encomienda was a general one for the whole Indies. There are no circumstances in the political history of the Indies which explain the causes of this permission being granted; but I am inclined to think that the presence at the Spanish court of many of the colonists, at this period, tended to settle the matter in this way. The Contador of Mexico, Rodrigo de Albornoz, the same man who was the first to give such sage advice about slaves, was now at court, as probably were also many other persons connected with the disputes which had arisen about taking the residencia of Cortez. They would be looked up to, in the affairs of the Indies, as practical men; and their advice (the second best being the advice generally given by such persons), backed by much sound and fluent talk upon the details of Indian affairs, would be likely to be adopted. Every effort hitherto made to control the power of Cortez having, from some cause or other, failed, the Spanish court began to view that power with increased jealousy and alarm. Moreover, the court must have been bewildered by representations of the most conflicting nature, coming from the various chiefs and factions of Mexico. The Emperor, therefore, and his ministers, resolved to change the form of government. |