CHAPTER XXI.

EIVAL GOVERNORS IN HONDURAS AND NICARAGUA.

1526-1530.

COLONIAL POLICY SALCEDO DISPLACES SAAVEDRA IN THE GOVERNMENT

OF HONDURAS SAAVEDRA S ESCAPE PEDRARIAS ENVOYS TRAPPED
SALCEDO INVADES NICARAGUA His CRUELTY AND EXTORTION DIS
TRESS AMONG THE COLONISTS RlOS ALSO PRESENTS CLAIMS, BUT IS
DISCOMFITED PEDRARIAS FOLLOWS TRIUMPHANT SALCEDO S IGNO
MINIOUS FATE ESTETE S EXPEDITION SLAVE-HUNTING PROFITS AND
HORRORS GLADIATORIAL PUNISHMENT OF REVOLTED NATIVES PE
DRARIAS SCHEMES FOR AGGRANDIZEMENT HE GRASPS AT SALVADOR
AND LONGS FOR PERU BOTH ELUDE HIM FURTHER MORTIFICATION
AND DEATH CHARACTER OF THE CONQUERORS.

ONE of the chief causes which gave rise to the dis

putes of rival leaders for the occupancv of Nicaragua
and Honduras was the policy which governed the
Council of the Indies in regard to the colonial posses
sions of Spain. Gradually the discovery of Columbus
had assumed gigantic proportions, and the indefinite
and unknown limits to the territories which had been
given to the first governors were becoming more fixed
and determined. The immense extent of the dis
covery and the vast dominions which had been allotted
to each colony was then first ascertained. It was
deemed wise and prudent by the court of Spain that
such broad possessions should be divided into smaller
states, and governed by many, rather than that the
whole should be under the jurisdiction of a few arro
gant viceroys. Thus checks could be more easily
placed on individuals, and the distant provinces of the
New World could be more readily held in subjection.
With this in view it was that Hernandez de Cordoba
(597)
598 RIVAL GOVERNORS.

had been urged by the audiencia to throw off alle

that the enterprises not only
giance to Pedrarias, and
of Gil Gonzalez but of Olid had been encouraged by
1
the Spanish government.
But a resort to arms as a method for settling their
differences was by no means desired; and when the
emperor became aware that hostilities had broken out
among the colonists of Honduras and Nicaragua he
peremptorily forbade any Spaniard to draw his sword
against another, under penalty of his severe dis
pleasure. The better to curb the encroaching con
querors on either side, and to further his policy,, he
resolved to appoint new governors for these provinces;
and thus it was that Pedrarias, owing in a great
measure to his wife and to family influence, had ob
tained the long desired lake region, even before the
result of his residcncia was known; while Honduras
was given as earl}7 as 1525 2 to Diego Lopez cle Sal-
ccdo, regardless of the great efforts and means ex
pended by Cortes in its colonization, wholly from his
own resources.
3

Salcedo was at this time residing in Espaiiola, and

on receiving the appointment, together with instruc
tions to inquire into the late trouble and punish the
guilty, he at once prepared to set out. The audiencia
1
The bitter complaints of Cortds against his rebellious lieutenant evoked
from the king merely instructions for Olid to maintain friendly relations with
Cort6s, and to report to the crown regarding the progress of his conqiiest.
El Rcy. .no hizo mas demostracion quo escriuir ii Christoual de Olid, que
.

con Cortes tuuiesse toda buena correspondencia, y fuesse duiido cuenta a su

Magestad, de lo quo passaua en aquella tierra, pareciendo que no era mal
consejo, la diuision de tan gran gouierno como tcnia. llerrera, dec. iii. lib. v.
cap. xiii.
2
His commission is dated November 20th. Pacheco and Cardenas, Col.

Doc., xiv. 52.

3
Cortes complaints were numerous and bitter, as may be imagined. In a
letter of 1532, for instance, he represents to the king the many valuable ser
vices rendered, and the hardship and danger suffered. He had discovered
the province of Honduras at his own expense, amounting to over 30,000 cas
tellanos, and the expedition to suppress the revolt of Olid had cost him over
50,000 castellanos, a like amount being also expended by his followers. He
had conquered, pacified, and settled over 200 leagues of territory, founding
three towns on the best parts of the coast; he had expended over 25,000
castellanos for horses, arms, and provisions, imported from Espaiiola and Cuba,
and before leaving the country had left a competent captain in charge of the
new colonies. Pacheco and Cardenas, Col. Doc., xiii. C-7.
 SAAVEDRA AND SALCEDO. 599

also took the instructions to heart, and, regarding

Cortes as implicated, they seized one of his ships at
Santo Domingo, with its cargo of merchandise. 4 Sal-
cedo found the settlers at peace on reaching Trujillo.
Saavedra and Alcalde Figueroa set the example to
the other officials in doing reverence to the new ruler,
who was solemnly inaugurated on the 27th of October,
1526. 5 The first act under the new regime was to
make an investigation into the late political disturb
ances, and the result was the arrest of Saavedra,
regidores Garnica and Vega, and two settlers named
Martin Cortes and Morales, who were placed on a
vessel for transmission to the judges in Espafiola.
Their safe-keeping was intrusted to Diego Morillo,
who was installed with a staff of justice, to give him
greater authority. But the emblem of the law failed
to impose upon the prisoners, who were in this respect
hardly less imbued with the spirit of the times than
Pedrarias and his followers. They had too whole
some a fear of the quality of mercy dispensed by the
pompous rulers at Santo Domingo, and determined to
make an effort for liberty. The mainland had barely
been lost to sight when they appealed to the master s
sympathy. Their argument was sufficiently weighted
to be convincing, and the shackles were not only
transferred to Morillo, but he was relieved of all his
effects. The vessel s course was thereupon changed
to Cuba, where the mutineers dispersed in search of
wr ider spheres of operations. 6
Shortly after Salcedo s installation the three envoys
of Pedrarias arrived at Trujillo. Finding a royal
governor instead of the intruder Saavedra, they did
not venture to present their demands for the sub
mission of the province, but sought instead to regain
4
For this they were afterward censured. Herrera, dec. iii. lib. x. cap. xi.
5
The royal commission, with the ceremonies attending its reception, is
given in Traslado de una Cedula, in Pacheco and Cardenas, Col. Doc., xiv.
47 et seq.
6
Orders came for investigation and punishment, flerrera, dec. iv. lib. ii.
cap. vi., but the distant Indies possessed as yet too many loop-holes and
corners for blind justice.
 600 RIVAL GOVERNORS.

Nicaragua and warn their master. Salcedo had them

arrested, however, as concerned in the disorders in
Nicaragua and Olancho, and turned the tables by de
claring Pedrarias an arraigned culprit, answerable to
the residencia judge at Panama, and Nicaragua as
within the jurisdiction of Honduras, instead of
falling
pertaining to Castilla del Oro. He intended, in fact,
to take possession at once, and in this course he was
encouraged by petitions from the anti-Pedrarias fac
tion of that province. The limits of Salcedo s gov
ernment had not been fixed, and what more natural
than to base on the claims of Cortes and Gonzales
the illusion that Nicaragua must
pleasing belong to
his jurisdiction? An additional excuse was to be found
in the late political disturbances in that
province,
which it behooved him as a royal officer to stop.
The captive envoys should accompany him as guides
and hostages.
Preparations were soon concluded, and Salcedo de
parted with nearly one hundred and fifty horsemen,
leaving the small remnant at Trujillo under command
of Francisco de Cisneros. 7 He sent forward Alonso de
Solis,one of his captains, and a priest, with instructions
to report to him the condition of the Indians throughout
the district; whether they were friendly or otherwise;
and what were their feelings in regard to the Christian
faith which they had previously professed to adopt.
Solis speedily came back with the information that
bands of Spaniards were prowling about the Olancho
Valley. Salcedo advanced upon them, and a skirmish
ensued in which two men were lost. Suspecting that
Albites and his companions might be connected with
this untoward check, he sent them back to Trujillo
with instructions for their immediate transmission to
Santo Domingo, on the charge of inciting native
revolts and other disorders. These charges were not
Oviedo, iii. 189, states that Diego Mendez de Hinestrosa was left in
7

charge at Trujillo, that Salcedo had already marched out of Trujillo for
Nicaragua when the envoys of Pedrarias came up, and that he sent them at
once to tt* audiencia. But he is not well informed.
 WOES OF THE NATIVES. 601

sustained, however, and the prisoners soon returned

fully exonerated.
Still another check came to dampen the ardor of
the party, and Treasurer Castillo, among others, urged
the abandonment of the expedition but the fair shores
;

of the Freshwater Sea had taken too deep a hold

upon Salcedo s fancy, strewn as they were by rumor
with much gold. No; he knew his duty as royal
officer, and would extend his beneficent rule to this
region. As for his losses and disappointments, he
would look to that universal source of redress, the
natives. Caciques were summoned to furnish Indians
for carrying burdens and gathering food, and soldiers
went forth to enforce the order. A number of those
suspected of complicity in the disturbances at Na-
tividad were hanged and others enslaved, to be event
ually sent out of the country and sold. Great were
their woes. Those who lost their relatives or near
friends fled to the mountains, preferring starvation
and death to the cruel oppression of the strangers.
This feeling extended also to the district of Corna-
yagua,
\J O *
and created a distrust which was at once ma^- O
nified into revolt. The Spaniards immediately fell
upon them, and a terrible havoc ensued. The natives
resorted to the passive retaliation of withdrawing
supplies, and even of destroying the crops, so as to
leave the Spaniards without food, and compel them to
devour horses and dogs. This heightened the feeling
against
O them,* and even the carriers were made to
suffer so severely that many threw off their loads and

sought to escape, only to be overtaken and slaugh

tered. The panic spread, and tribes distant from the
scene burned their villages and fields to seek refuge in
the mountains, lest they should be exposed to similar
outrages on Salcedo s return.
In Nicaragua the rumor of these doings had im
pelled the natives to assume a threatening attitude,
so that when the Spanish party finally arrived at
the city of Leon they were hailed as saviors. This
602 RIVAL GOVERNORS.

helped to pave the way for Salcedo, and when he sub

mitted his commission to Martin Estete, the officer
in charge, and to the municipal body, they gave one
glance at the sturdy forces by his side and then rec
ognized it as valid. The new governor was sworn
in May 7, 1527. Once in undisputed possession the
humanity of Salcedo underwent a change. He would
no longer carry panic into native villages by means
of raiding parties; nay, he would even relieve the
Indians from the oppression of their present masters,
the late subjects of Pedrarias, and place them under
the experienced control of his friends and followers.
Without more ado the choice repartimientos were
transferred to the hands of himself and his adherents,
with not even an attempted excuse to the late holders.
Such high-handed proceedings created general dis
satisfaction, not only among the despoiled settlers but
also among the enslaved, who were regarded as cattle,
and treated with a severity paralleled only by the
Honduras atrocities. More spirited, however, than
the former victims, they retaliated with sullen stub
bornness, and refused to gather gold or perform agri
cultural labor. The distress increased, and many
could not procure the common necessaries of life.
The rupture between the two races developed into
open warfare, in which rights, grievances, and pas
sion often figured only as minor impulses by the side
of the cravings of hunger. 8

To these distressing was the country reduced

straits
when a new claimant to the
government presented
himself, in the person of Pedro de los Bios. Invested
with the same power and authority over Castilla del
Oro as his predecessor, he thought himself entitled
to jurisdiction also over Nicaragua, since it had been
occupied and settled under the same auspices. He
8
Hcrrera would have us believe that starvation was over the whole
country, in all its ghastly horrors, making it a question of life and deatli
between Spaniard and Indian, who devoured each other, dec. iv. lib. i. cap.
vii. But this is clearly exaggeration.
 PEDRARIAS AND BIOS. 603

had deferred his departure from Panama till Pedrarias

should have been securely entangled in the meshes
of his residencia, and therefore unable to object. But
the latter was desirous to see him leave, in the hope
that a change in his own favor might be effected, per
haps by some friendly ingulfing wave, some devoted
assassin, or some native treachery; for the road was
new and Bios inexperienced. As a proof of his
friendly interest in the project Pedrarias counselled
him to invest heavily in merchandise, which must pay
a large profit. Such advice was not to be disregarded,
and, as circumstances would have it, the gubernatorial
trader was received with open arms by the sorely
pressed settlers of Nicaragua. But Bios had not the
foresight which characterized Fiscal Moreno s pro
ceedings in Honduras, two years before, and on pre
senting his claims to the supreme office the colonists
returned a cold stare. They saw nothing in his com
mission which expressly included Nicaragua within
Castilla del Oro, and although much afflicted by the
avaricious and oppressive measures of Salcedo, they
determined to support a governor whom they might
call their own rather than submit to one residing at
such a distance, and evidently intent on enriching
himself and Panamd at their expense.
It is not improbable that the cause for the change
lay partly with Pedrarias, whose emissaries hoped by
this means to embroil the new aspirant with his pro
posed subjects. Salcedo was strong enough, however,
with his own troops to dictate terms to his rival, and
he peremptorily ordered him to leave the province
within three days, under a penalty of ten thousand
pesos. Bios had too much respect for his portly
person to expose it to profane usage. Still he would
have lingered had not the threatened fine urged him
away. As it was, in the flurry of departure he even
forgot his gout, with which he was just then severely
stricken, and his O groans were not resumed till the
vessel had turned prow for Panama. He carried one
604 RIVAL GOVERNORS

consolation, however, to soothe his ruffled spirit; he

had made these boorish colonists pay tenfold for his
cargo of merchandise. After all, the trip had not

proved unprofitable, and he laughed within himself at

the thought. On his way back he stopped at Bruselas,
in the gulf of Nicoya, where a friendly reception
was accorded him. Informed of this, Salcedo with
vindictive jealousy sent a troop of sixty horse under
Garabito to destroy the hospitable town.
The rankest despot could hardly deport himself with
more capricious severity than these petty upstart
lieutenants in the Indies. Salcedo was evidently a
fitting successor to Pedrarias, as far as displaying his
jealousy, greed, and cruelty; but he lacked some of
the commanding characteristics which had so often
enabled the latter to weather the storm raised by his
tyrannous impulses. His rule was to be brief and
ignoble. One of his last acts, which bore the re
lieving stamp of a public measure, was to order
Gabriel de Kojas to explore Rio San Juan, the outlet
of the lake, and to found there a settlement.
This order was disregarded, for just then came the
rumor that Pedrarias was about to return as governor.
This sufficed to bring the general dissatisfaction with
Salcedo to an issue. At first he treated the news as
absurd but, when the report came that Pedrarias was
;

actually on the way with a royal commission, he re

solved to collect his scattered followers arid make his
escape. The step was fatal, as it encouraged the still
wavering Estete with his friends to pronounce in favor
of the expected chief. The officials of Salcedo were
arrested, which rendered the executive powerless to
act, and his horses were seized, so that he might not
escape a reckoning. So ominous became the demon
stration against the deposed governor, that he aban
doned the building which had hitherto given him
shelter, and sought the protecting walls of the
church. There he remained, closely guarded by the
rebels, till Pedrarias arrived. Several persons had re-
 IMPRISONMENT OF SALCEDO. 605

monstrated with Estete with regard to these arbitrary

proceedings, based as they were on a mere report from
Panama"; but this officer, who had everything to gain

by the movement if the report proved true, declared

that Pedrarias should be supported even if he came
without a royal commission. In any case it would be
suicidal now to restore the relentless Salcedo to
9
power.
All doubts were solved by the arrival of the old
governor at Leon in March, 1528, and the timely
turncoats were liberally rewarded; Estete receiving
the command of Leon, and Diego de Tejorina that
of Granada. Immediately on receipt of his appoint
ment Pedrarias had hastened to Nicaragua, leaving
an agent at Panama to finish his residencia, and to
collect the property and effects which had been at
tached. In connection with the new government the
king had appointed Licenciado Castaneda alcalde
mayor, and Diego de la Tobilla treasurer, both of
whom arrived eight months later. 10
Salcedo s case claimed the first attention of the
new ruler, and claims and charges began to pour in,
the chief accusation being that he had stationed
spies to watch for the arrival of Pedrarias and native
assassins to despatch him. An investigation was
ordered, to embrace also the question whether Sal
cedo had royal authority for his entry into the terri
tory. The accused denied the charges, of course, and
protested that he had come merely to pacify the
country, in accordance with his instructions. He de
manded liberty to depart for Honduras, where the
king required his presence as governor. Any other
9
According to Herrera, dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. ii., Gabriel de Rojas was
offered the government, but declined to hold the province except for the king
direct; whereupon he was arrested and Garabito given the command. He
seems confused, however, while Cereceda s account is most clear on all these
points. Carta, MS., 3-6. Ovicdo is quite brief, iii. 190.
10
The present treasurer, Ilodrigo del Castillo, was under indictment by
the inquisition at Panama. With Pedrarias came a friar empowered to try
his case, by whom he was acquitted, and he thereupon resumed office till
Tobilla arrived. Cerezeda, Carta, MS., 10-11.
606 RIVAL GOVERNORS.

person might have felt awed by a demand coupled so

plausibly with the royal name, but Pedrarias had too
often mocked even the direct commands of his sov
ereign to care for indirect requirements. He flaunted
in the face of the accused the royal order lately re
ceived forbidding him to meddle in Nicaraguan affairs,
and declared that since he had done so there was
every prospect for a residcncia. The order for it
might arrive at any moment, and he must give bonds
to answer the claims against him. The bonds not
being forthcoming he was placed under restraint, and
on his attempting to escape, close confinement was
imposed.
Ten weary months Salcedo lay in durance. Finally
Treasurer Tobilla and Osorio, afterward bishop, in
tervened and brought about a peaceful settlement. -

But the conditions extorted from him as the price

of liberty were so humiliating that shame and vexa
tion preyedupon his mind, and destroyed his health,
already weakened by imprisonment. He was obliged
to renounce his claims to the south, and promise to
confine himself to a triangular section of territory
bounded on the east and west by Cape Gracias a Dios
and Puerto de Caballos. 11 The three envoys of
Pedrarias, whom he had sent to Espanola to answer
false charges, and who had returned acquitted, were
to be compensated, and he must give security for
twenty thousand pesos to appear in case a residencia
should be instituted against him. On Christmas eve,
1528, the prison doors opened before him, and the
once dashing Salcedo tottered forth, pale and ema
ciated, weighed down with infirmities of body and
mind, an object of pity even to the down-trodden
Indians. It had been a game of rogue against rogue,

11
Herrcra s lucid definition of the limits reads
: Desde Leon al puerto de
Natiuidad, cien leguas Nortesur, y desde Chorotega, por otro nombre Foseca^
hasta pnerto de Cauallos, Nortesur, quo auia setenta leguas, y cien leguas do
costa por el mar del Norte, y otras tantas por el Stir con mas lo q se le
renunciaua, y lo quo para adelante pudisse cnsancharse descubriendo, in
cluding Nequepia province, or Salvador, dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. ii.
 EXPLORATION OF THE EIYER SAN JUAN. 607

and Pedrarias as usual was the winner. Salcedo felt

that he deserved little sympathy, either from the op
pressed colonists or from the cruelly treated natives,
and within ten days he set out for the shielding
precincts of his own government.

Pedrarias had long before this taken steps to secure

for himself the large tracts of country which he in
tended to extort from his prisoner, chiefly because
they were reported to be rich in gold. For this there
were also additional motives. The report of mineral
wealth in the province had induced the king to inquire
regarding the desirability of erecting smelting works,
and similar measures, and although the avaricious old
governor required no incentive to gold-hunting, yet
the communication was welcomed as a good pretence
for his preparations. The already projected expedition
by Rojas to the river outlet of the lake was therefore
ordered to proceed, reinforced to more than one hun
dred and fifty men, but the chief command was in
trusted to Estete, with instructions to explore the
country, particularly for minerals, to take possession
for Pedrarias, and to found settlements on the river
and along the sea-shore, as desired by the king. On
the river, where it receives the waters of the lake, was
formed the settlement of Nueva Jaen, flushed at first
with brilliant anticipations of a vast entrepot trade
and a flourishing colony, but doomed to speedy aban
donment. From the mouth of the San Juan the
party followed the coast northward, blazing their way
with branding-iron and sword, and finding good mines
at Cape Gracias a Dios, as rumored. There they es
tablished another colony, of which Rojas was left in
charge, while Estete returned to Leon.
Their pathway thither had been stained sanguine
by the most abominable cruelty against the natives,
in the form of wholesale enslavement and wanton
bloodshed, and this in face of the repeated and
stringent orders from the king for their good treat-
603 RIVAL GOVERNORS.

ment. 12 Of what avail were orders which suited not

the taste of Master Pedrarias! On setting out for
Cape Gracias a Dios, Estete received from the chest,
in which it was kept under three locks by order of the
crown, the branding-iron, which was intended to be
used only on rebels and criminals, and pursuing his
circuitous route, he captured and branded indiscrimi
nately all natives who fell into his hands, and sent
them as slaves to Pedrarias at Leon. Captives were
secured by iron collars around the neck, chained
together in gangs, and forced to carry heavy burdens.
When one fell from exhaustion, in order to save time
and trouble, his head was severed from the body,
and this released the collar so that the others might
13
pass on.
This and other kidnapping expeditions, made chiefly
Leon and
in the interest of Pedrarias, fairly glutted
Granada with captives but if they could not be used
;

O them. The
here there was another means of utilizing
native population of the Isthmus, as we have seen,
had already been so greatly reduced by the ever drip
ping sword, by the hardly less speedy measures of
relentless taskmasters, and by the flight of panic-
stricken border tribes, that the settlers found it diffi
cult to flll the constantly occurring gaps in their labor
gangs. A slave market had accordingly been opened
at Panama, where natives were sold by auction. Its
origin was with Pedrarias, and with a fatherly regard
for his former government he felt it a duty to sustain
an institution so useful to the colonists and so com
forting to his coffers. A regular trade thereupon
12
Besides the usual humane injunctions it was ordered that towns should
bo founded near the Indians, so that they might be brought by example and
gentle means to a knowledge of the true faith, and be led to adopt the manners
and customs of Christians. To promote this desirable end the royal officers
were enjoined to watch strictly over the moral and economic features of the
Spanisli settlements. The revolted Chorotegas were to be pacified by kind
ness, and the native slaves brought from Panama were to be returned. Her-
re fa, dec. iv. lib. i. cap. viii. Sec chap, v., note 5, this volume.
13
Lleuando los Indios cargados, y encadenados, co argollas, porq no se
boluicssen: y porq vno se canso, por no quitarle el argolla le quitaron la
, y lo dissimulo. Herrera, dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. ii.
 DEPOPULATION. 609

sprang up in Indian slaves, and several ship-loads were

taken down to Panama about this time by different
14
persons.
The supply of unfortunates was drawn not only
from the outlying districts, but from the very centre
of the lake settlements, and their capture assisted
the sword and lash to no small extent in decimating
the population. When Gil Gonzalez first entered the
country it was densely populated, and the city of
Managua alone contained forty thousand souls, it was
said. Afew years of Spanish rule sufficed to turn
whole tracts of flourishing country into uninhabited
wilds, leaving here and there only small communities
of terrorized natives groaning under extortionate and
cruel masters. On appealing to their idols they were
assured that a flood could be called forth, but in it
would perish Indians as well as Spaniards. Such was
the comfort derived from their religion. Although
they had riot courage enough to adopt this remedy,
women widely formed the resolution not to perpetuate
a race foredoomed to slavery and cruel death.
At first, when numbers still gave self-reliance, they
ventured to renew the hostilities which under Salcedo
had led to such bloody results. Soon after Estete s
departure for Cape Gracias a general revolt broke out.
In the districts of Leon and Granada bloodshed was
averted, but in the interior the slaughter of natives
was great, and if the Spaniards lost comparatively
few, the loss was increased by the horrors of canni
balism. 15 Among the victims were Alonso Peralta,
the royal treasurer, an hidalgo named Zurita, and two
brothers of the name of Ballas, who in 1528 set out
from the city of Leon to visit the Indians that had
been allotted to them respectively. None ever re
turned; all were slain by their vassals. Pedrarias

14
Ponce de Leon and Hernando de Soto, for instance, took two cargoes at
one time, according to Pizarro, Rdacion, in Col. Doc. Ined., v. 209.
15
Ellos mataro a los Castellanos q acertaron a hallar fuera del lugar,
y los comieron. Herrera, dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. ii.
HIST. GEN. AM., VOL. I. 39
G10 EIVAL GOVERNORS.

despatched a band of soldiers, who captured eighteen

caciques supposed to be implicated in the murders.
The Indians becoming daily more bold and trouble
some a new method of striking them with terror was
invented. As in the introduction of Christianity to
the natives diplomacy was frequently made to take
the place of logic, so in war and punishment a refined
cruelty, in the exercise of which the aged Pedrarias
Davila stood unexcelled, was deemed the most effectual
means of pacification. The governor of Leon deter
mined on a grand spectacle, modelled somewhat after
the gladiatorial exhibitions of Rome. An inclosure
was made in the public square of the town, and on a
fixed day the Indian chieftains were brought forth.
One of them was led into the arena and given a stout
stick or club with which to defend his life againstO the
dogs to be let loose. At first five or six young and
inexperienced animals were set upon him, which he
could easily keep at bay with his stick. After wit
nessing this sport until it grew tame, and just as the
unfortunate captive began to rejoice in the hope that
through his skill and bravery his life was saved, two
fierce bloodhounds rushed in, seized him by the throat,

brought him to the ground, tore into shreds the flesh,

and devoured the entrails, assisted by the still yelping
whelps. On
the authority of Oviedo, an eye-witness,
this scene was repeated seventeen times.
horrible
Pedrarias ordered the dead bodies to be left on the
ground as a warning to others, but soon the stench
became insupportable, and the Indians were allowed
to remove them. 16

Thus did the effort to open a transcontinental route

by way of San Juan not only fail, but it carried a
host of evils with it, as we have seen. Pedrarias WTIS
not content, however, to abandon to Panama so fruit
ful a project without another struggle, and since the

strip of land between Leon and Caballos was well

16
Los quales eran del vallc de Olocoton 6 de su coraarca. Oviedo, iv. 100.
 SALVADOR. 611

suited for a road, he prepared to open one. But

orders came from the king forbidding the work. The
Isthmus was regarded as sufficient for present traffic,
and it was also feared that too many lives would be
lost in constructing the new road.
One of the objects of Pedrarias in connection with
the undertaking was to secure possession of the west
ern territory wrested from Salcedo, and in this, at any
rate, he resolved not to be defeated. Estete was ac
cordingly despatched northward with a strong force,
accompanied by Rojas. He was first to explore the
northern lakes to determine their outlet, and then to
occupy the district between Golfo Dulce and the
South Sea, north of Fonseca Bay. This province,
known as Salvador, had already been conquered by
Alvarado, the lieutenant of Cortes; but Pedrarias
knew that the settlers left in possession were not
numerous, and that the king would be more apt to
favor the annexation of the province to the adjoining
small government of Nicaragua than to the distant
and too extensive New Spain. Besides, Honduras
had claimed it, and that claim was now his. Estete
advanced into the heart of Salvador and occupied the
town there founded by Alvarado. Few as they were
the settlers refused to recognize the authority of the
Nicaraguan governor, and his lieutenant retired to
the town of Perulapan, upon which he bestowed the
high-sounding title of Ciudad de los Caballeros, to
gether with a batch of officials who were to aid him
in the congenial task of oppression and enslavement.
His sway was not of long duration, however, for
J orge de Alvarado, then in charge of the Guatemalan

government, receiving notice of the intrusion, came

down upon his settlement and compelled him to evacu
ate the province in hot haste, with the loss of half
his force, which deserted to the enemy. 17

17
Despite his want of success, says Oviedo, iv. 61, Estete received from
Pedrarias another important command, to the prejudice of another officer.
The details of the expedition will be given in connection with Salvador.
612 RIVAL GOVERNORS.

Pedrarias schemes for aggrandizement were evi

dently not succeeding according to his desire, and he
grieved at the thought of the many heavy ducats lost
on this last expedition. It was the more deplorable
in view of the failure to direct through
Nicaragua
the transcontinental traffic, which would have yielded
so rich a harvest for himself. But above all hovered
a deeper grief than any of these. Peru, with its glit
tering wealth, was now dawning on the world, and
none would have been more dazzled by the sight than
Pedrarias, had not the agonizing fact intruded itself
that he had been tricked out of these very treasures,
or at least a large share of them.
When the first expedition was organized for this
conquest by Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque, Pedrarias,
then governor at Panama^ had stipulated for a fourth
interest, in return for which he bestowed the weighty
sum of his patronage. But the opening events proved
to be less flattering than he had expected, and when
demands came for pecuniary aid toward the enter
prise, he shrank from the prospect, and allowed him
self to be bought off for the
paltry consideration of
one thousand pesos de oro. Soon came glowing re
ports, however, and bitter were his denunciations
of the folly which had permitted so rich a prize to
escape him; and deep his feeling rankled against the
late partners, whom he never ceased to
suspect of
duplicity and of having beguiled him with misrepre
sentation.
While he was thus brooding,
it
happened that Nic
olas deRibera arrived in Nicaragua, commissioned by
the Peruvian conquerors to procure reinforcements.
He sought in particular to win for this purpose
Hernando cle Soto, Hernan Ponce, and Francisco
Companon, all men of means, who had two vessels on
the stocks, nearly finished and available for the voy
age. Byrevolving before their eyes, in kaleidoscopic"
harmony, a few specimens of the Inca s treasures,
illustrated by tales no less alluring, he secured the
 THE PERUVIAN ADVENTURE. 613

active sympathy not only of these men, but of a

crowd of beggared adherents.
Not least dazzled was Pedrarias. Indeed, he could
not sleep for the visions that crowded upon his brain.
Finally the idea struck him that he might here
retrieve his folly by securing an interest in the ves
sels and reinforcements, and obtain a fair proportion of
that gold-enameled region, perhaps the whole. Pizarro
and Almagro had already prepared the way, and it
might even be his fortune to secure the results of
their victories. In order to lull the Peruvian emis
saries he promised to do everything to aid Pizarro
and Luque as for Almagro, he had been deceived by
;

him, and deceit his confiding nature could not endure.

He thereupon entered secretly into negotiation with
the owners of the vessels, but overreached himself by
demanding the lion s share in command as well as re
turns. Feeling himself in duty bound to spare his
own purse, he looked about for victims to furnish
means, and bethought himself of Ribera s vessel.
An alguacil was sent to seize it, but Ribera received
timely warning and escaped, after prevailing on Ponce,
Soto, and their adherents, to sail away to Panamd and
there arrange with Pizarro for a liberal share in the
18
conquest, leaving behind the foiled Pedrarias.
The governor s mortification was increased by local
troubles, as might be expected from his arbitrary
rule and irascible temper, which had now reached
octogenarian crabbedness. A
most distasteful feature
had been the arrival of Alcalde Mayor Francisco de
Castaneda, appointed by the king to take charge of
the judicial affairs of the province. This division of
authority was intolerable, and, on the pretence that
disorders must result where different persons exercised
judicial and gubernatorial powers, he urged his friends
in Spain to obtain for him the privilege to appoint and

18
Soto alone brought about 100 men to Peru. Pizarro, Eel., in Col. Doc.
Ind., v. 211-15; Herrera, dec. iv. lib. vi. cap. iii. Oviedo, iii. 119-20.
;

This conquest will be spoken of in a later volume of this history.

614 RIVAL GOVERNORS.

remove at pleasure alcaldes mayores and lieutenants.

Meanwhile he made an effort to exercise this power,
alleging the possession of a royal cedula authorizing
him to do so; but Castaneda, who was not so
easily
imposed upon, challenged him to produce the docu
ment, and this not being done, he added to his chagrin
by ignoring him.
There was little likelihood of any arbitrary powers
being conferred on the governor, for complaints of
abuses were fast pouring in against him, headed
by
the influential ayuntamiento of Leon. grave charge A
was peculation. When Rodrigo del Castillo surren
dered his office to the formally appointed treasurer he
took the opportunity to inform the king that
large
sums in gold had been taken from the Indians by
Cordoba. All this the governor had laid hands upon
without any accounting therefor to the crown. He
had also managed to appropriate the confiscated es
tate of Cordoba, and to defraud a host of others,
besides perpetrating outrages and cruelties of
19
every
description.
In the midst of the brewing troubles, in the year
20
1530, this Timur of the Indies died at Leon, nearly
ninety years of age. His body was buried in the
same church with his victim Hernandez de Cor
doba, and his spirit went to meet the spirit of Yasco
Nunez, and the spirits of the hundreds of thousands
of slaughtered savages whose
benighted souls he had
sent on before. 21 Not that he quailed at the thought.
By this time his mind had become so fixed in some
19
In 1527, as has been intimated, there was an outcry for his removal, but
with the aid of influential friends he managed to retain his seat. Castillo states
that one expedition alone, under Cordoba, had brought over 100,000 pesos de
oro into Leon, none of which reached the crown. After beheading Cordoba
he had conjured up a partner for him, named Tellez, into whose hands was
placed the confiscated estate, so that it might with better pretence be ap
propriated. Carta, in Pacheco and Cardenas, Col. Doc., xii. 84-G.
J
En fin de lulio. llerrera, dec. iv. lib. ix. cap. xv.
al
iii. 17 2, attributes to Pedrarias the release of two millions of
Oviedo,
souls from dusky bodies during a period of sixteen years. Ni han tenido
mas largas jornadas que caminar dos millones de indios que desde el aiio de
mill 6 quinientos y catorce que Ileg6 Pedrarias a la Tierra-Firme hasta quel
muri6. Two million murders !
 DEATH OF PEDRARIAS. 615

incomprehensible mould of logic that there was no

disturbing it. Further than this he knew he could
not escape the inevitable.
A disposition so ready to find solace is to be envied,
the more so since it forms a redeeming feature. No
man is, for that matter, wholly depraved, nor are any
faultless. In the worst there is much that is good in ;

the best much evil. And the difference between the

best and the worst is, in the eye of the Creator, much
less than in the eye of the creature. For a period of
sixteen years, during the most important epoch in the
history of Darien, an irascible old man, cruel and vin
dictive, plays a prominent part. His name is infa
mous, and so it deserves to be. Some of his misdeeds
may be attributed to inherent wickedness, others to
infirmities of temper; but many to peculiar conditions
incident to the colonization of a new country, and to
the teachings of the times. Spanish colonists of the
sixteenth century, reared under the influences of ex
cessive loyalty, and suddenly withdrawn from the
presence of their august sovereign to distant parts,
were time freed from the
like children for the first

arbitrary rule of injudicious parents. While the safe

guards of society were removed, and free scope thus
given to passion, there yet remained their religious
belief,the fruit of early teachings. That strange
fanaticism which blended avarice and deeds diabolical
with pretended zeal for the glory of God, not only
permitted but demanded blood and vengeance. Under
the circumstances, therefore, the wonder is, not that
we find so much that is wicked in these Spanish ad
venturers, but that men so taught and conditioned
display so many qualities noble and magnanimous.
Farewell Pedrarias Few there are who came to
!

these parts of whom so much of evil, so little of good,

may be truthfully said. And thou Death, almighty
leveller ! who by thy speedy compensation has brought
this rusty, crusty old man, these several centuries,
616 RIVAL GOVERNORS.

and for all the centuries time shall tell, to be no better

than Vasco Nunez, than Cordoba, than the meanest
of the multitude of savages he has vilely slain, we
22
praise thee !

22
Additional authorities for the preceding two chapters are Various
:

documents in Col. Doc. Ined., v. 209, 211-12, 215; also in Pacheco and Cdr-
denas, Col. Doc., vii. 556-7; xii. 84-6; xiv. 54; xvi. 324; Squier a MSS., iv.
xx. 2-5, 11-43; Rcmesal, Hist. Chyapa, 164; Andagoya, Narr., 32-9; Chimal-
pain, Hist. Conq., ii. 181; Navarrete, Col. deViayes, iii. 416-17; Las Casas,
Hist. Apolog., MS., 29; Pelaez, Mem. Guat., i. 54-9; Beaumont, Crdn. Mech.,
MS., 322-3; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., iv. 616; Betty, Nica
ragua, i. 171-2.