specting my person, it was clear that not a Spaniard would escape, for, seeing us turned against one another not only would we find the enemy against us, but even those whom we regarded as friends would join in and finish with all of us. I thanked Our Lord, because in the discovery of this treachery lay the remedy. We immediately seized the principal offender, who spontaneously confessed that he had designed and planned, with many persons whom he betrayed in his confession, to assault and kill us, and to take the Government of the country for Diego Velasquez, and that it was true he had designed to appoint captains and alcaldes, and that he himself was to be the alguacil mayor, and that he was to seize and kill me. Many persons were involved in this, whom he had placed on a list which was found in his lodgings (although torn in pieces), together with the names of persons with whom he had spoken of the said affair; he had not only contemplated this in Tesaico, but he had also communicated it, and spoken of it during the war against the province of Tepeaca. After hearing the confession of this man, who was called Antonio de Villafaña, a native of Zamora, and as he reiterated it, the judge and myself condemned him to death, which was executed on his person.[1] Although we found others inculpated in this offence, I dissembled with them, treating them as friends, because the case being mine, although more properly it might be said to be that of Your Ma-
- ↑ This man was a private soldier who had come to Mexico in Narvaez's company; not Cortes alone but also Sandoval, Alvarado, and Olid were to be killed, and the commandership given to Francisco Verdugo, brother-in-law to Diego Velasquez, who was said, however, to be ignorant of the conspiracy. The plan was for several of the conspirators to stab the four leaders while they were seated at table. Cortes displayed a wise self-restraint in going no further in the affair than the execution of Villafaña, though he had the list of other names, the finding of some of which surprised and pained him greatly. He spread the report that Villafaña had swallowed the paper containing the list of the guilty ones.
