CHAPTER LVII.

CHAPTER LVII.

_What took place in our camp after the departure of our agents to
his majesty with the gold and the letters; and the instance of
severity which Cortes was compelled to give._

The suspicions of Velasquez's adherents were again aroused at the departure of our agents, and the following occurrence took place a few days after. A conspiracy was set on foot by Pedro Escudero, Juan Corme�o, Gonzalo de Umbria, a pilot, the priest Juan Diaz, Bernardino de Coria, (who afterwards became a citizen of Chiapa, and was father of a certain Centeno,) and some seamen of Gibraleon. All these were excessively embittered against Cortes; some because he had refused to grant them the promised discharge to return to Cuba; others because they had lost their share of the gold by the present which had been sent to the emperor; and the seamen because they could not forget the lashes which he had given them on the island of Cozumel for stealing the flitches of bacon. They had determined to seize upon one of our small vessels, to sail to Cuba, and acquaint the viceroy Diego Velasquez that he had merely to send to the Havannah and the possessions of Montejo in order to capture our agents with all the riches. We concluded from this that the conspirators had been counselled by persons of authority among our officers, since they knew that Montejo, notwithstanding the strict injunctions which he had received to the contrary, had landed at his commendary. The affair was already so far advanced that the conspirators had sent on board the necessary provisions of cassave-bread, oil, dried fish, water, and such like, and were about to set sail, when one of them, Bernardino de Coria, began to repent, called upon Cortes at midnight, and discovered the whole plot to him.

Cortes first of all made an accurate inquiry into the names and number of the conspirators, as also into the reasons and the way they intended carrying out the plot; he then ordered the sails, the compass, and the rudder to be taken from the vessel which was to have conveyed them. Upon which he closely examined the conspirators, when they immediately made a full confession, and mentioned the names of others who were implicated. These names were for the present very prudently suppressed, and proceedings were merely taken against those who stood most prominent in the affair. A council of war having been held with all the usual formalities, Pedro Escudero and Juan Corme�o[19] were sentenced to be hung; the pilot Gonzalo de Umbria to have his feet cut off, and the sailors to receive two hundred lashes each. If father Juan had not been a priest he would likewise have shared a similar fate; as it was he merely suffered for a time the dread of suspense which indeed must have been terrible enough. I shall never forget how Cortes cried out, with a sigh, and deeply affected, at the moment he signed the death-warrants: "What a fortunate thing if I were unable to write; then should I neither be able to sign a death-warrant!" This same exclamation likewise frequently falls from judges who have to decide over life and death; in which expression, however, they merely repeat the words of the barbarous emperor Nero, when in the commencement of his reign he showed so goodly a disposition.

The sentences being executed, Cortes immediately set out for Sempoalla, having previously ordered that 200 men, with all our horse, should follow him. The distance to this place was a good twenty miles. Pedro de Alvarado was absent during this time, having three days beforehand been sent with 200 men into the mountains in search of provisions, which were extremely scarce. Orders were, therefore, left behind for him to march to Sempoalla on his return, where arrangements would be made for our further route to Mexico. Alvarado, consequently, was not present when the executions took place.

[19] Torquemada (Mon., Ind. i, iv, c. 25) gives some additional circumstances respecting this conspiracy; among other things he says, that the pilot Cermeno was so remarkably nimble, that if two of the tallest men held up a lance as high as they could horizontally, he would bound over it with ease by means of another lance. Also that his sense of smelling was so acute that he could scent the land at a distance of sixty miles when at sea; but adds, "aunque no olio esta muerte;" yet he could not smell the nature of his death. (p. 133.)