A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 04: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
This affair being decided in our favour, the necessary documents were
entrusted to two relations of Cortes, Roderigo de Paz and Francisco de las
Casas, who carried them in the first place to St Jago in the island of
Cuba, where Velasquez resided. On the sentence being made known to him,
and proclaimed by sound of trumpet, he fell ill from vexation, and died
soon afterwards poor and miserable. Francisco de Montejo had the
government of Yucutan and Cozumel from his majesty, with the title of Don.
Diego de Ordas was ennobled, getting for his coat of arms the volcano of
Guaxocingo, and was confirmed in all his possessions in New Spain. He went
back to Spain two years afterwards to solicit permission to conquer the
province of Maranion, in which enterprize he lost his life and all his
property. On the arrival of Las Casas and De Paz in Mexico with the
appointment of Cortes to the government, there were great rejoicings
everywhere. Las Casas was made a captain, and got the _encomienda_ of a
good district called Anquitlan; and De Paz was appointed major-domo and
secretary to Cortes, getting likewise valuable possessions. Cortes
liberally rewarded the captain of the vessel which brought out this
pleasing information, and provided handsomely for all who came out to New
Spain from his native country of Medellin. All the proceedings of our
agents in Spain were regularly conveyed to us the conquerors; but it
seemed to me that they agented solely for Cortes and themselves, as we who
had raised Cortes to his greatness, were continually encountering dangers
and hardships, without any reward. May God protect us, and inspire our
great emperor to cause his just intentions towards us to be carried into
effect. To us, the ancient, wise, and brave conquerors of Mexico, it
appeared that Cortes ought to have duly considered his true friends, who
had supported him from the first through all his difficulties and dangers,
and ought to have rewarded us according to our respective merits, and his
majesties orders, by giving us good and profitable situations, instead of
leaving us poor and miserable. By his majesties orders, and by his duty,
Cortes was bound to have given to us and our children all the good offices
in the kingdom of New Spain; but be thought only of himself and his
favourites. In our opinion, who were the conquerors, the whole country
ought to have been divided into five equal parts, allotting one to the
crown, another for the holy church, and the remaining three parts to
Cortes and the rest of us, who were the true original conquerors, giving
each a share in perpetuity in proportion to our rank and merits,
considering that we had not only served his majesty in gratuity, but
without his knowledge, and, almost against his will. This arrangement
would have placed us at our ease; instead of which, many of us are
wandering about, almost without a morsel to eat, and God only knows what
may become of our children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account