Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/149

Rh archers, with four field-pieces and ample stores, supported by a large force of warriors. Rangel left Mexico February 5, 1524, and taught by previous reverses, he took the utmost precaution to render secure his advance. The natives on their side were less cautious, and thus a prospectively hard campaign among the mountains was concluded within quite a brief period, and so thoroughly that no revolt took place again. A fair amount of spoils was obtained in gold, fabrics, and slaves; the latter numerous, since it had been decreed that all captured natives should be enslaved as a warning to rebels.

The cost of these expeditions was quite heavy to all concerned, for arms, horses, clothes, and other effects were exceedingly dear, despite the influx from Spain and the Islands. Soldiers brought nearly all their own outfits, including arms and horses, yet Cortés was obliged to supply war stores, provisions, and articles from what he calls his private estate, though tributes and exactions must have been applied. 'The least of the expeditions," he writes to the emperor, "must cost my estate more than five thousand pesos de oro, and those of Alvarado and Olid cost fully fifty thousand." The expense was the greater in the latter case, owing to the fleet being kept waiting during the Pánuco campaign, with crews in receipt of pay. Indeed, he had not only spent his fortune, but incurred debts, while for certain revolts which imperilled the interests of the crown and its subjects he had been obliged to borrow sixty thousand pesos and more from the royal treasury. Yet nothing should deter him from doing what was necessary for the service of his sovereign; so he affirmed.