Conversion of the Natives.

33

An object which Cortez never lost sight of was the conversion of the natives. In his report to the Emperor, dated the 15th of October, 1524, he says that,

66

as many times as I have written to your sacred majesty, I have told your highness of the readiness which there is in some of the natives of these parts to receive our holy Catholic faith and become Christians. And I have sent to supplicate your imperial majesty that you would have the goodness to provide religious persons, of good life and example, for that end." Cortez then proceeds to suggest that these should be monastic persons, and he speaks very plainly against bishops and other prelates.* This is the passage which, I imagine, has led some ingenious persons to believe that Cortez was inclined to the Protestant doctrines. To my mind, it is to be explained by his great desire for conversion, in which he wisely foresaw the religious orders would be most useful. Perhaps, also, his dislike to Bishop Fonseca may be traced in this general outbreak against bishops.

It must have been with very great satisfaction that Cortez in this year (1524) had to welcome the arri

"Porque habiendo Obispos, y otros Prelados, no dejarian de seguir la costumbre, que por nuestros pecados hoy tienen, en disponer de los bienes de la Iglesia, que es gastarlos en pompas, y en otros vicios: en dejar Mayorazgos á sus Hijos, ó Parientes; y aun seria otro mayor mal, que como los Naturales de estas partes tenian en sus tiempos Personas Religiosas, que entendian en sus Ritos y Ceremonias, y estos eran tan recogidos, assí en honestidad, como en castidad, que si alguna cosa, fuera de esto, á alguno se le sentia, era punido con pena de muerte. E si agora viessen las cosas de la Iglesia, y servicio de Dios, en poder de Canónigos, ó otras Dignidades; y supiessen, que aquellos eran Ministros de Dios, y los viessen usar de los vicios, y profanidades, que agora en nuestros tiempos en essos Reynos usan, seria menospreciar nuestra Fé, y tenerla por cosa de burla.”—LORENZANA, p. 392.

34

Holding of a Synod.

val of Martin de Valencia* and his Franciscan breth

ren.

As there were many things connected with the Church in the New World which required settlement, a synod was immediately held. It consisted of five clérigos, nineteen religiosos, six letrados, and Cortez himself. At this synod the difficult question of polygamy was discussed, and it was arranged that the Indian husband might choose as his legal wife the one he liked best.‡

Few conquerors or statesmen can have transacted more important affairs than we see that Cortez had to deal with in the three years and two months that had now elapsed since the Conquest of Mexico.

* Martin de Valencia was endowed with inquisitorial powers in New Spain, and this was the first entrance of the Inquisition into Mexico. "Quando el año de 1524, passo á Mexico el Padre fr. Martin de Valencia, con sus Religiosos de San Francisco, aun no era muerto el Padre fr. Pedro de Córdova, y assí por la autoridad de Inquisidor que tenia, le hizo comissario en toda la Nueva-España, con licencia de castigar delinquentes en ciertos casos, reservando para si el Inquisidor el conocimiento de algunos mas graves."-ANTONIO DE REMESAL, Historia de la Provincia de San Vincente de Chiapa y Guatemala, lib. ii., cap. 3. Madrid, 1619.

An account in detail of the immigration of the religious orders into New Spain will be given in the history of Guatemala.

+ "Y para que en todo se procediesse conforme á lo dispuesto por la Santa Madre Iglesia. Fray Martin de Valencia, como Legado del Santíssimo Papa, juntó un Synodo, que fué el primero que se celebró en el Nuevo Mundo, y en él se hallaron, 5 Clérigos, 19 Religiosos, 6 Letrados, y con ellos D. Fernando Cortés."-GIL GONZALES DAVILA, Teatro Eclesiástico, tom. i., p. 20.

‡ "Declararon, que por entonces casasen con la que quisiesen, pues no se sabian los ritos de sus Matrimonios."-GOMARA, Crónica de la Nueva-España, cap. 167. BARCIA, Historiadores, tom. ii.

"Ultimamente habiendose ocurrido á la Cathedra de San Pedro, decidió el Señor Paulo III. por un Breve, en que expresamente manda, que quando uno viniesse á la Fé, se le dé la primera de las Mugeres que tenia en su Gentilidad; y si no supiesse declarar qual era la primera, se le dé la que el quisiesse."-F. A. LORENZANA, Concilios Provinciales de Mexico, Nota, p. 6. Mexico, 1769.

CHAPTER II.

CRISTOVAL DE OLID SENT BY CORTEZ TO HONDURAS.-HIS REBELLION.—CORTEZ GOES TO HONDURAS TO CHASTISE CRISTOVAL DE OLID. — DISSENSIONS IN MEXICO DURING HIS ABSENCE. EXECUTION OF THE KINGS OF MEXICO AND TLACUBA.-RETURN OF CORTEZ TO MEXICO.-PONCE DE LEON COMES TO TAKE A RESIDENCIA OF CORTEZ.

THE

HE next great transaction of Cortez is one which led to the most disastrous consequences, and is not, as it appears to me, marked by his accustomed sagacity. Even the shrewdest men, however, are liable to singular errors of judgment, from the temptation to continue to do something similar to that which they have once done well. In the management of an expedition through a hostile or dubious country, Cortez was transcendent. But a sagacity of another kind was more in demand now; and for some years he would have served his country better as a statesman than as a soldier.

Soon after the settlement of the affairs of Panuco, Cortez had dispatched Cristoval de Olid, one of those captains who had distinguished themselves in the siege, to make a settlement in Honduras. This expedition started on the 11th of January, 1524. Cristoval de Olid proved unfaithful to his trust, and gave undeniable signs of setting up an independent government for himself. Cortez was particularly indignant at the conduct of Olid; and his rage, shown by the swelling of the veins in his throat and the dilating of his nostrils,

36

Journey of Cortez to Honduras.

must have been closely watched and reported to the Council of the Indies at home, for we find that Peter Martyr was well aware of it.* Cortez dispatched an armament, commanded by his cousin, Francisco de las Casas, to reduce Olid to obedience; and afterward sent, to support Las Casas, a vessel laden with arms and provisions, under a certain Pedro Gonzalez, a native of Truxillo, and, therefore, a fellow-townsman of Cortez. Having, however, received no good tidings from these captains, the general resolved to go himself, and bring Olid to a sense of his duty. The journey was a most perilous one. The settlement which Olid had made was not less than fifteen hundred miles from Mexico, and the king's officers (who had arrived at Mexico in the year 1524) naturally remonstrated with Cortez upon his undertaking such an expedition. It is probable that their remonstrance did not meet the considerations which induced Cortez to undertake this expedition. Almost any other man in the world, if employed as Cortez had been since the conquest of Mexico, would have supposed, and justly, that he had been leading a very active and energetic life. But Cortez felt that for some time he had been idle, and had done no new thing; and it now appeared to him that he "must engage in something." Accordingly,

* "Super Christofori Oliti, de quo lata mentio facta est in superioribus, inobservantia, Cortesium tanta rabies invasit, ut vivere ulterius nolle videretur Olito impunito, cum narium et venarum gutturis summo tumore præ ira, sæpe dedit de tanta animi perturbatione signa, neque a verbis id significantibus abstinuit."-PETER MARTYR, De Orbe Novo, dec. viii., cap. 10.

† "Dada órden para en lo de Cristoval Dolid como á V. M. escribí, porque me pareció que ya habia mucho tiempo que mi persona estaba ociosa y no hacia cosa de nuevo de que V. M. se sirviese á causa de la lesion de mi brazo, aunque no muy libre de ella, me pareció que debia de entender en algo."-Relacion hecha al EMPErador Carlos V. por

manner.

Journey of Cortez to Honduras.

37

he determined to persevere in his expedition,* and made his preparations for quitting Mexico in the following He appointed the treasurer, Alonso de Estrada (a natural son of Ferdinand the Catholic), and the Contador Albornoz as his lieutenants in the government. He named as alcalde mayor the Licentiate Zuazo, the same man who had been sent by Cardinal Ximenes to accompany the Jeronimites, and who had been a great friend of Las Casas.† He left Rodrigo de Paz, a cousin of his, as his major-domo, and as alguazil mayor. To all of these officers, to his old friend and companion in the conquest, Father Olmedo, and to a Franciscan monk, named Toribio Motolinia, he left the charge of converting the natives and of preventing insurrections. In order further to secure the fidelity of the natives, he carried with him the kings of Mexico

HERNAN CORTÉS sobre la expedicion de Honduras. De Temixtitan (Méjico) á 3 de Setiembre, de 1526. Doc. Inéd., tom. iv., p. 10.

* A letter to the Emperor from Cortez about the Olid affair is lost. I conjecture, from some slight indications, that the letter in question informed his majesty that the present expedition was not necessarily to proceed to Honduras, but that, if Cortez received favorable intelligence about Olid, the expedition would have another object, and that it was originally intended as much for further discovery and conquest as for chastising a disobedient lieutenant.

Gomara, indeed, says that Cortez got free from the requisitions of the king's officers by promising to go to Coatzacualco only, and other provinces in that neighborhood which were in revolt. "Ellos entonces le requirieron de parte del Emperador, que no fuese; í él prometió, que no iria sino á Coaçacoalco, í otras Provincias por allí rebeladas; í con tanto, se eximió de los ruegos, í requirimientos, i aprestó su partida, aunque con mucho seso."-GOMARA, Crónica de la Nueva-España, cap. 163 (2). BARCIA, Historiadores, tom. ii.

† See ante, vol. i., book viii., p. 479.

‡ "Y encomendó á todos aquellos oficiales de la hazienda de su Magestad, á quien dexava el cargo de la Governacion, que tuviessen mui grande cuidado de la conversion de los naturales, y ansimismo lo encomendó á un Frai Toribio Motolinia de la Orden del señor San Francisco, y al Padre Frai Bartolomé de Olmedo, de mi tantas vezes