The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. 2

1/25/22, 8:50 PM The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo written by himself, containing a true an…
havebeen very tardy in his movements, for he did not reach Tutepec untilforty days after.
The inhabitants, who had received intelligence of hisapproach, came out to meet him with
every show of magnificence, andconducted him to the most populous of all their townships,
where stood the temples and their largest buildings. The houses were very crowded, and
made of straw, for in this excessively hot climate the dwellings haveno upper stories, and
are not built of stone. Father Olmedo here observed to Alvarado, that it would not be
advisable to quarter the troopsin the houses, for if the inhabitants were to take it into their
heads toset fire to the town there would be no possibility of escape. Alvaradoconsidered
his apprehensions well founded, and encamped with his menat the extremity of the town.
The cazique soon after arrived with avaluable present in gold, which he repeated almost
every day, and provided the troops with abundance of provisions. When Alvarado found
what a quantity of gold the inhabitants possessed, he ordered them tomake him a pair of
stirrups of the finest gold, and gave them a coupleof his own for a pattern; and indeed those
they made turned outvery good.
Notwithstanding all the gold which Alvarado received from thiscazique, he ordered him to
be imprisoned a few days after his arrival,as the people of Tecuantepec had assured him
that the whole province was upon the eve of rising up in arms against him, and that the
chiefsof Tutepec had only invited him to quarter his troops in the large housesin the heart
of their town, that they might set fire to them, and burnhim, with all his men, to death.
Many credible persons have asserted that Alvarado's only motive forill using this cazique
was, to extort more gold from him; one thing,however, is certain, that he gave Alvarado
gold to the value of 30,000pesos, and that he died in prison from excessive grief. Father
Olmedoindeed strove to give him every consolation in his last days, but all hisendeavours
proved fruitless; melancholy had sunk too deeply into his heart. The caziquedom then
devolved upon his son, from whomAlvarado extorted even more gold than from the father.
[Pg 147]
Alvarado then sent a small detachment of his troops to visit the other townships of the
province, and distributed these among the settlers of the new town which he founded, to
which he gave the name of Segura, because most of the new inhabitants had formerly
settled in the town of Segura de la Frontera, or Tepeaca. After he had done all this, he
ordered the vast quantity of gold he had collected from thetownships to be securely packed,
in order that he might take it with him to Mexico, and hand it over to Cortes; for he
pretended that thelatter had desired him to collect all the gold he possibly could, as itwas
to be forwarded to his majesty, to make up for the loss of that whichJean Florin had carried
off to France; and that he had received particularinstructions from our general not to divide
any of it among the men who accompanied him on this expedition. When Alvarado was
about to make preparations for his departure, a certain portion of his troops, mostly
musketeers and crossbow-men, formed a conspiracy toput him and his brothers to death,
because he had refused, after theirrepeated solicitations, to give them any share of the gold,
or to distributeamong them any very lucrative Indian townships.
This plot was fortunately discovered to father Olmedo by one of theconspirators, named
Trebijo, the evening preceding the night on whichthe bloody deed was to have been carried
out. Father Olmedo instantlycommunicated what he had heard to Alvarado, who was about
to start, in company of some of the conspirators, to go a hunting. Alvarado therefore
pretended to be taken with a sudden pain in his side, andturning to those who were to have
accompanied him, he said, "Gentlemen, I must return to my quarters; let a barber
immediately cometo bleed me."
As soon as Alvarado had arrived in his quarters he sent for his brothersJorge and Gonzalo
Gomez, with the alcaldes and alguacils; he then orderedthe conspirators to be seized, and
two of them, after a short trial, were sentenced to the gallows. One of these men was a
certain Salamanca,of Condado, who had formerly been a pilot; the other was Bernardino
Levantisco, and both of them died like good Christians, after father Olmedo had fully
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32475/32475-h/32475-h.htm 102/282