Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/83

 Cuyoacan, after receiving instructions as to what they were to do, left Tesaico on the tenth of May, and slept in a fine town, called Aculman, two and a half leagues from there. The same day, I learned that some dispute had arisen between the captains about the quarters, and, to settle this and re-establish peace, I immediately sent a person who reproved and pacified them.According to Bernal Diaz, who was in Alvarado's division, Olid had taken possession of all the available houses in Acolman for himself and his troops, marking the houses thus appropriated with green branches, so that when Alvarado's division reached the town there were no quarters for them. The soldiers of the two divisions almost fell to fighting, and the two commanders had challenged one another, but several of the cooler-headed officers interfered and restored a semblance of peace; but Alvarado and Olid were never afterwards friends. Cortes sent the Franciscan, Fray Pedro Melgarejo and Captain Luis Marin, as his peace-makers.

Another incident occurred at this time, which Cortes passes over in silence. This was the desertion of the Tlascalan general, Xicotencatl, who left the army, accompanied by a few followers, and returned to Tlascala. Various reasons are given for his action; Bernal Diaz attributes it to jealousy of Chichimecatl, and a perfidious plan to get possession of his lands while the latter was absent, fighting against Mexico. Herrera ascribes his desire to return home, to a love affair (lib. i., cap. xvii.). There had been a quarrel between a Spanish soldier and a Tlascalan chief, in which the latter was badly wounded; the matter was hushed up, so that Cortes should not hear it, as he was very strict in such matters; thus the soldier remained unpunished and as Xicotencatl was a relative of the wounded chief he left (Prescott, lib. vi., cap. iv.). Cortes first sent some Tlascalans to seek to induce him to return, and, this failing, he despatched some Spanish horsemen, with orders to arrest the general and bring him back. He simultaneously sent news of the affair to the Senate of Tlascala, informing the senators that amongst Spaniards, desertion was punishable by death. The versions of Xicotencatl's end do not agree. Herrera describes his death by hanging in public at Texcoco, while Bernal Diaz says he was executed where he was captured. Xicotencatl had always mistrusted the Spaniards, nor could the blandishments of Cortes nor the popular sentiment in Tlascala ever change his opinion. He was opposed to the alliance, and after fighting the Spaniards in the field, he continued to oppose them in the councils of his people. Cortes was aware of his sentiments and conscious of the bad effect such an example of desertion would have if left unpunished; hence it is likely he was glad to be rid of an ally on whose fidelity he could not count. Xicotencatl's On