I should be well pleased if I could continue my writing without
digressions, for it is quite long enough without treating of other
histories, yet I am obliged to do so that my narrative may be
understood. For I want, above all, to satisfy my readers. Therefore,
with the brevity which is my wont, I will relate the events that we
are following up. The reader is sure to remember that, in an earlier
part of my history I mentioned how, when Don Pedro de Heredia was
Governor of Cartagena, the Licentiate Juan de Vadillo came to hold a
_residencia_. After several things had happened, an account of which I
omit for reasons already given, he set out with followers in the way
I have described in the part where I treated of him.[20] As Heredia
remonstrated, his Majesty appointed as Judge the Licentiate Santa
Cruz, who governed the province of Cartagena well, and founded there
the city of _Mompox_. As Vadillo would not submit, the Judge ordered
troops to be got ready, and sent Juan Greciano as his lieutenant in
charge of them, with powers to administer justice to the men Vadillo
had raised, and orders to send them back to Cartagena. But now, when
the troops were about to start. Judge Santa Cruz made a great mistake.
This was to appoint one Luis Bernal as captain to carry on a war with
the Indians wherever he might pass. Thus with one holding a commission
as lieutenant and the other as captain, the expedition left Cartagena.
Having arrived at the port of Urabá early in the year 1538, they
began the march, and from the first few days parties were formed,
each captain wanting to be superior to the others, while the soldiers
joined those who had most to offer, so that although the men were few,
the confusion was great, and as suspicions increased, the quarrels
became worse. I am not astonished at this for whether in an army, or a
company, or in the smallest province or the widest kingdom, if there
are two heads it is impossible that there can be good government. And
thus, too, said Alexander, when Darius sought for peace by offering
a part of his dominions, that the world could not be governed by two
heads, and that only one could hold the empire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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