the natives had sent to implore him for protection both against strangers and adjoining hostile tribes.[1] An additional reason for occupying the province was the necessity for New Spain proper to control so excellent a country.[2]
The importance of the project demanded that Cortés should undertake it in person, the more so since his leading captains were occupied elsewhere. He accordingly left Diego de Soto in charge at Mexico, with instructions for continuing the rebuilding, and set out with one hundred and twenty horse, three hundred foot-soldiers, a few field-pieces, and some forty thousand Indians from different quarters.[3] A fair proportion of the latter were chosen Aztec warriors, whom he thought it prudent to keep under his own immediate control, rather than expose the capital to the danger of a fresh conspiracy. The quality of the allegiance accorded to the Huastecs,[4] as the Pánuco
- ↑ Bernal Diaz confirms this, and adds that the greater part of the province had risen and killed the men sent by Cortés. Hist. Verdad., 161. He evidently confounds the time and men with previous occurrences, for Cortés would not have failed to use a slaughter of his own men as an argument. He states that the people of Panuco came to excuse themselves for killing Garay's men, and later the crew of a vessel, on the ground that they were not his adherents. Cartas, 281-2. The petition came probably from the Almeria region, which he chose to call Panuco, for on a previous page he writes somewhat contradictorily that the Panuco tribes who had formerly tendered allegiance were now warring on vassals of the crown. Id., 263.
- ↑ Mouia le tãbien desseo de vengar los Españoles de Francisco de Garay g alli matara,' adds Gomara. Hist. Mex., 222.
- ↑ Cartas, 282. One hundred and thirty horse, 250 foot, and 10,000 Indians. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 161. He never allows more than a limited number of natives, desirous as he is to assume as much credit for Spaniards as he possibly can. A part of the force was recruited from Aillon's unfortunate expedition to Florida. Herrera reduces the horsemen to 80, but Gomara increases them to 150; and Ixtlilxochitl follows him as usual, though he assumes the auxiliaries to be composed wholly of Acolhuas and Mexicans. There must have been a large number of Tlascaltecs, Totonacs, and others. the town of Xochimilco claims to have furnished 500 warriors and large supplies. Those who survived this expedition perished under Alvarado in Guatemala. Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiii. 294. Zamacois, Hist. Méj., iv. 104, assumes that the incorporation of so large a force of Aztecs was a proof of growing confidence in them, but the truth is that the select warriors were taken away because they could not be trusted, especially after the recent conspiracy. Two years later the same precaution was observed, even so far as to take away on a long journey their princes, who actually proved a burden from the constant watching and care demanded by them.
- ↑ The Huastecs occupied a large stretch of territory, but afterwards their province was limited on the north-east by Tampico. See Native Races, i. 647.
