Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/376

 profit. I have, likewise, prepared an expedition to settle on the banks of the River Las Palmas, The territory of Rio de las Palmas just north of Panuco had been granted to Panfilo de Narvaez, and was reputed to be extraordinarily rich in gold and precious stones. Cortes's proposed expedition was withdrawn to avoid encroaching on the rights of Narvaez, and a free hand was thus left to Nuño de Guzman, a man of noble birth from Guadalajara, who had been for some years at Puerta de Plata in San Domingo, until, through Diego Velasquez's influence, he was appointed Governor of Panuco. For cruelty, rapacity, and violence, he was among all the Spaniards in Mexico, either before or after him facile princeps. In his Governorship of Panuco, he had already violated all the conventions with the natives, and, in defiance of the royal ordinances, had so hunted down the Indians, branding them and shipping as slaves to the Islands, that his province was almost depopulated. He was just as violent in his treatment of the Spaniards, directing his severities, especially towards all who were known as friends of Cortes.

He invaded neighbouring provinces, and, when the settlers resisted, his superior force enabled him either to drive them out, seize their lands, or to capture them, and, without even a trial, condemn them to torture and death. He nailed one Spaniard to a tree by a nail through his tongue for using impertinent language to him.

Promoted to the Governorship of Mexico, the field for carrying on his sinister exploits was enlarged, and no oppression, extortion, or outrage, which his fiendish ingenuity could devise, or his avarice suggest, was omitted to subjugate all alike to his will; later his expedition into the north-west left the same trail of robbery and murder behind. He was finally arrested and sent to Spain for trial, where, in 1540, Cortes had the magnanimity to interest himself in behalf of his old enemy, who was penniless, friendless, and in prison at Torrejon de Velasco, some eight leagues distant from the capital, even sending him money for his wants. Guzman died, however, before his trial was finished. Bustamente moralises on the strange contradiction in the character of Cortes, which prompted such generosity to the most inveterate enemy he had ever had, one who since years had worked him every injury in his power, while he showed himself so heartless in his treatment of the brave King Quauhtemotzin, whom he hanged in the dead of night, in the wilds of Yucatan, for no fault whatever after having robbed and tortured him in Mexico. which is on the north coast, below Panuco, in the direction of Florida, for I have been informed that the land is good and that there is a seaport; all of which persuades me that God, Our Lord, and Your Majesty will not be less served there than in other parts.