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…
Mexico was very great, particularly as the viceroy, after Alvarado'sdecease, was desired to
send immediate assistance to Xalisco; but ashe was unable to leave himself just then, he
despatched the licentiate Maldonado thither with as large a body of men as could be
assembledin the hurry of the moment; though subsequently he marched in personagainst
the Indians, and completely subdued them, after protracted andfatiguing campaigns.
When the news of Alvarado's death reached Guatimala, the grief of his family knew no
bounds; and his wife, Doña Beatriz de la Cueva, with whom he had lived on the most
affectionate terms, cried incessantly,and she and all the ladies of her household cut off their
hair.His death was also a severe blow to his lovely daughter, his sons, andhis son-in-law
Don Francisco de la Cueva, on whom Alvarado hadconferred the government of Guatimala
during his absence. Every oneof the Conquistadores of this province deeply lamented his
death, and put on mourning for him. The bishop Don Francisco Marroquin was likewise
deeply affected at the sad news, and performed a solemn massfor the dead, assisted by the
whole body of the clergy, and ordered dailyprayers to be offered up for the repose of his
soul. Alvarado's major-domo,to show his excessive grief, had even plastered all the walls
ofhis house with a species of black bitumen, which stuck so fast, that itcould never after be
taken off again.
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Several cavaliers waited upon the disconsolate widow to condole withher, and begged of
her to moderate her grief, and humbly to resignherself to the will of God. This, as a good
Christian, she promised todo; but as women are unable to moderate their grief for the loss
of those they have loved, she said she was tired of life, and longed to quit this vale of
sorrows. I have merely mentioned this circumstance because Gomara, in his Chronicles,
puts the following blasphemous wordsinto her mouth: "That the Lord Jesus could not have
visited her witha severer calamity;" and he maintains that it was owing to her havinggiven
utterance to this that the town of Guatimala was shortly after visited by so direful a
calamity; for the volcano, which lies about twomiles from the town, during a violent storm,
suddenly vomited huge masses of stone and clouds of ashes, succeeded by a deluge of
water,from the bursting of the crater, by which a great part of the townwhere the widow of
Alvarado resided was totally destroyed, and sheherself, with several of her ladies, drowned.
However, this lady certainly gave utterance to nothing more than what I have mentioned
above, and what Gomara states is an invention of his own: and if itpleased the Lord Jesus
to call her away from this earth, it is not formortal man to scrutinise the mysterious decrees
of heaven.
With respect to this dreadful tempest and earthquake, I will give theparticulars in another
place. I cannot help mentioning with regret, that, notwithstanding the many important
services which Alvarado andhis five brothers, as also the other Alvarados, had rendered to
the crown, the sons and daughters of the first-mentioned retained none of the townships
comprehended in his commendary, and that the fact of his having subdued the whole
province was never even taken into consideration,and it was no longer borne in mind that
he accompanied the expedition under Grijalva, and was present in all the campaigns of
Cortes. The manner in which he himself, his wife, his children, andhis brothers lost their
lives, is altogether remarkable. Alvarado himself,as we have seen, met with his death in the
expedition against Cochitlan; his brother Jorge, who fought in some of the campaigns of
Mexico andthose of Guatimala, died in Madrid in the year 1540, whither he hadgone to
solicit his majesty for some remuneration for the services he had rendered the crown;
Gomez was killed in Peru; Gonzalo died in Guaxaca or Mexico; and Juan, who was a
natural brother, ended hislife at Cuba, whither he had journeyed to look over some property
hepossessed in this island. The eldest of Alvarado's sons, named DonPedro, repaired, with
his uncle Juan the younger, to Spain, to representto his majesty the many valuable services
his father had renderedto the crown; but neither of them were ever after heard of, and they
must either have been lost at sea or taken prisoners by the Moors. His second son, Don
Diego, finding that all his father's property was gone,returned to Peru, where he lost his life
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