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…
captain-generals. In the same manner the other chiefappointments, besides all our property
and horses, had already beendisposed of by the conspirators. The Almighty, however, in his
mercy, prevented this horrible deed from being carried into effect, the consequences of
which would have been continual divisions, the inevitableloss of New Spain, and the total
destruction of our troops. The wholeof this conspiracy was discovered to Cortes by one of
our soldiers acouple of days after his return to Tezcuco, and he had thus sufficienttime to
adopt active measures for suppressing it before it spread further.The honest man who made
the discovery to him assured him also that there were several men of rank among the
conspirators.
Cortes, after he had handsomely rewarded this man, communicatedthe whole affair, under
the seal of secrecy, to the officers Alvarado, Oli,Lugo, Sandoval, Tapia, and myself; also to
the two alcaldes for theyear, and to all those in whom he could place confidence. He then
ordered us to arm ourselves without any further delay, and he thenproceeded with us to the
quarters of Antonio de Villafaña.
On entering his apartment we found him in conversation with severalof the conspirators,
and the four alguacils who accompanied us immediately arrested him. The rest instantly
took to flight, but Cortes had many of them seized. Villafaña being thus in our power,
Cortes thrust his hand into that officer's bosom, and drew forth a paper, containing the
whole plan of the conspirators, to which all their names were attached.Cortes, on perusing
this paper, found the names of severalmen of importance among the list of conspirators;
and being desirous of saving them from dishonour, he afterwards gave out that Villafaña
had swallowed the paper, and that he had not read it himself, nor evenso much as seen it.
A criminal suit was now instituted against Villafaña, when he, withseveral others who were
implicated in it, made a full confession of thewhole matter. Cortes, the two alcaldes, and
the quartermaster Oli,who formed the court-martial, then pronounced Villafaña guilty, and
sentenced him to be hung; and, after he had confessed to father JuanDiaz, he was executed
in front of his own quarters.
[Pg 55]
Here Cortes allowed the matter to rest, though several of the conspiratorswere kept in close
confinement, and in order to frighten them appearances were made as if they likewise
would have to share a similarfate with Villafaña. Our general, however, was desirous of
saving theirnames from dishonour; to which may be added, that this was not exactlythe
time to go to the utmost severity of the law.
From that moment our general had a body guard, consisting of the captain Antonio de
Quiñones, a native of Zamora, and twelve trustworthymen, who were to be near his person
both night and day. Inthe same way he likewise requested the rest of us in whom he could
placeconfidence to watch over the safety of his person. He never, however,evinced any
animosity in his subsequent behaviour towards the otherconspirators, though he took care
to be particularly upon his guardagainst them. [19]
After this miserable affair was ended, notice was given that the prisonerswe had made in
our expedition round the lake were to be broughtin to be marked within the space of two
days. In order not to wastemany words on the subject, for the third time I will merely state
thatour men were even more shamefully cheated on this occasion than onthe former. First
the emperor's fifths were deducted, then those ofCortes, and after him our chief officers
committed their piracies. If,therefore, any of us had an Indian female who was handsome or
strong of limb, we certainly took her to be marked with the iron, but stole her away the
night following, and took care not to show her again until some considerable time had
elapsed; so that numbers of our slaves werenever marked at all, and yet we employed them
as our naborias.
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