66 The Rebuilding of Mexico. them.* He describes the loss of life among the Indians from accidents caused by the demolition of old buildings and the construction of new ones. He says that not only had they to seek the materials for building, but also to provide the food and pay the workmen.† He confirms the statement before made, that the work was done by sheer force of human labor; and that a stone or beam of wood, which should have taken a hundred men only, was dragged by four hundred. Such was the fervor, he adds, with which the work was carried on, that the songs and shouts of the workmen did not cease day or night during the first years of the rebuilding of Mexico.§ When we consider these "plagues," we may fairly maintain that a conquered people have seldom been more hardly dealt with by the diseases and the vices of their conquerors. It was also a surplusage of misery that the conquered territory should be rich in mines, and that the conquerors should have brought with them slaves of another race. "Apenas podia hombre romper por algunas calles y calçadas, aunque son muy anchas."-Carta de Fray MOTOLINIA. MS. "A su costa buscan los materiales, y pagan los pedreros y carpinteros, y si ellos mesmos no traen que comer, ayunan."-Ut supra. "La piedra ó viga que avia menester çien ombres trayan la quatrocientos."-Ut supra. "Tienen de costumbre de yr cantando y dando vozes, y los cantos y vozes apenas çessavan de noche ni de dia por el gran hervor que trayan en la hedificacion del pueblo primeros años.”—Ut supra. CHAPTER I. GIL GONÇALEZ DAVILA DISCOVERS NICARAGUA.-FRANCISCO HER NANDEZ SENT BY PEDRARIAS TO SETTLE THERE. HE FOUNDS LEON AND GRANADA.—DRIVES OUT GIL GONÇALEZ.—HERNANDEZ BEHEADED BY PEDRARIAS.-DEATH OF PEDRARIAS. CHAPTER I. GIL GONÇALEZ DAVILA DISCOVERS NICARAGUA.-FRANCISCO HERNANDEZ SENT BY PEDRARIAS TO SETTLE THERE.-HE FOUNDS LEON AND GRANADA.-DRIVES OUT GIL GONÇALEZ.-HERNANDEZ BEHEADED BY PEDRARIAS.-DEATH OF PEDRARIAS. NICAL TICARAGUA was the battle-field of so many pretensions; it illustrates so completely the vices and errors of the Spanish government and of the Spanish adventurers; its history is so much interwoven with that of Guatemala, Honduras, and even of New Spain, that some attempt must be made to bring before the reader, however briefly, the principal events connected with its discovery and colonization. For this purpose we must revert to the famous bull of Pope Alexander the Sixth, which divided between the Portuguese and Castilian monarchs the world about to be discovered, laying down an imaginary line to the west of the Azores as the boundary. Now the peculiar delusion which at this early period haunted the monarchs of Spain and their statesmen was, that the most desirable enterprise which maritime daring could accomplish for their nation would be, by going westward, to arrive at the Spice Islands. They would then rival or eclipse the Portuguese, without in the least violating the contract made between the two countries under the Pope's auspices. * The * Gaspar ContARINI, one of the admirable embassadors of whom Venice in the Middle Ages could boast so many, whose Relazioni should be a text-book for the diplomatic service, in an account of his 70 Division of the New World. land of Kublai Khan was not more attractive to Columbus than the Spice Islands to the Spanish sovereigns. Often, neglecting the immense advantages mission to the court of Charles the Fifth, which he read to the Senate on the 16th of November, 1525, makes the following statement: "Ora questo Fernando Cortes è per procedere più oltre, e già verso il mezzogiorno aveva ritrovato circa dugento miglia lontano dal Jucatan il mare meridionale, e molte altre città, e ha trovato un' acqua amplissima dolce, fra la quale e questo mare meridionale è un territorio, non più di due miglia largo, e spera eziandio di trovare che quest' acqua dolce pervenga anche prossima a quest' altro mare settentrionale, il che quando si ritrovasse, credono che per quella via con grande facilità potriano navigare all' isole Molucche, ed altri luoghi dell' Indie Orientali per torre le spezie senza intricarsi con li Portoghesi."-Relazione di GASPARO CONTARINI Ritornato Ambasciatore da Carlo V., letta in Senato a dì 16 Novembre, 1525. Relazioni degli Ambasciatori Veneti al Senato. Raccolte, annotate ed edite da EUGENIO ALBÈRI, Serie ia, vol. ii., p. 53. Firenze, 1840. The above passage shows the effect that was produced in the court of Spain by that part of the narrative which Cortez had given of his Honduras journey to the Emperor respecting a possible route to the Pacific by the Golfo Dulce. The whole account which CONTARINI gives of the discoveries in the Indies is wonderfully accurate, and his testimony with regard to the beauty of the workmanship of the golden vases, the mirrors, and the ornaments of feathers, which had come from Mexico, is worth recording, for a refined Venetian of that day must have been one of the best judges of works of art. "Da questo Jucatan nella terra propinqua, poco più all' occidente, sbarcò Fernando Cortes già cinque anni, e penetrò dentro nella terra, dove trovò molti popoli, e molte città, fra le quali una provincia detta Tolteche (he ought to have said Tlascala), la quale era inimicissima al re di Tenochtitlan (l'antico nome della città di Messico), di dove con molte guerre, e molte lusinghe false si è fatto signore. Questa città è meravigliosa e di grandezza e di sito e di artifizj, posta in mezzo un lago di acqua salsa, il quale circonda circa dugento miglia, e da un capo si congiunge con un altro lago d'acqua dolce; non è però molto profondo, e l'acqua cresce e cala ogni giorno due volte come fa qui a Venezia. Dalla terra alla cittá sono alcune strade fondate nel lago. Li abitanti sono idolatri, come tutti gli altri di quei paesi, mangiano uomini, ma non tutti, solo mangiano li inimici che prendono in battaglia. Sacrificano eziandio uomini alli loro idoli. Sono poi industriosi in lavorare; e io ho veduto alcuni vasi d'oro, ed altri venuti di là, bellissimi e molto ben lavorati. Nè hanno ferro, ma |