The Native Conquistador by Amber Brian & Bradley Benton & Pablo García Loaeza

Author:Amber Brian & Bradley Benton & Pablo García Loaeza
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780271066851
Publisher: The Pennsylvania State University Press

Cortés’s punitive expedition against Cristóbal de Olid was costly, arduous, and ultimately fruitless. Map by Pablo García.

This Alonso Yzquinquani, his servant, was a smart and generous man and very capable. He also left another two governors called Zontecon and Cohuatecatl for the two other capitals, Mexico and Tlacopan. They would be subject to Yzquinquani. Ixtlilxochitl made the arrangements and put the governors in place for the kingdom of the Aculhua and for the Mexica and Tepaneca since he was in charge of everything, as we have seen; King Quauhtemoc and King Tetlepanquetzal were imprisoned and did not participate in matters related to the governing of their kingdoms. Ixtlilxochitl left Otumpan and traveled to Chalco, where he waited for Cortés, who, having appointed his lieutenants in Mexico City,83 left with as many Spaniards as he could gather. He was well supplied with weapons and all the necessities. As further insurance against rebellion, he took with him King Quauhtemoc, Cohuanacoch, Tetlepanquetzal, and Zihuancohuatl, who was the governor and captain general of the Mexica,84 as well as Tlacatecatzin and Mexitzincotzin, who were the most powerful and noble lords of the land. When they reached Chalco, Cortés joined Ixtlilxochitl, and the two of them marched with the whole army with great haste, because Cortés was distraught by the news that Cristóbal de Olid had rebelled against him.85 He wanted to quell the insurrection before the situation escalated. On the way he also wanted to subdue certain provinces that were in rebellion because the Spaniards had stolen their belongings and mistreated them a thousand times over.

A few days after Cortés had left Mexico, the Spanish governors that he left in his stead, Alonso de Estrada and Rodrigo de Albornoz, had certain disputes and disagreements over governance, so all the Spaniards were fighting against one another. The natives suffered greatly; they would have risen up and killed all the Spaniards in the city had it not been for the love of the religious, who calmed them down. The friars also asked the Spaniards not to mistreat the natives so badly, so they would not rise up in rebellion, since they easily could have done so. Moreover, everyone was sad and complained, saying that their lord kings were taken by Cortés, almost like prisoners, to faraway lands. They thought that he was taking them to kill them treacherously and secretively, as in fact happened.

The Spaniards were very angry with the friars because they took the Indians’ side, and so they very nearly threw them out of Mexico. There was even one time, when a certain religious was preaching and castigating the Spaniards for their evil deeds and tyrannies, the Spaniards rose against this friar and almost threw him down from the pulpit. But owing to the saintly wisdom and prudence of fray Martín de Valencia, the friars, with the love of God in their hearts, tolerated from the Spaniards what they would have expected of the barbarous Indians. The messengers that came and went each day told Ixtlilxochitl and the other kings and lords everything.

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