ing leave to challenge Salazar, but the permission was refused, and Guzman issued a decree declaring that Alvarado "lied like the foul traitor that he was," for Salazar had never uttered such a word.
Meanwhile the plundering schemes of Guzman and his confederates widened like a dread disease, till Spaniards and natives groaned under the infliction. Their first step had been to extort gold from those prominent chiefs whom as yet they dared not seize. In this they were well served by a certain native interpreter, at whose suggestion all caciques were ordered to present themselves in Mexico for the consideration of matters of importance. In accordance with custom the chiefs brought with them rich gifts, which served but to whet the unappeasable appetite of the recipients, and the most generous of the givers were summoned again and again. Among these was Francisco Caltzontzin, king of Michoacan, who succumbed to his generosity, for at length Guzman caused him to be lodged in his own house, where he was constantly subjected to exactions of treasure, which the president retained for himself. Repartimientos were seized in every direction, and the natives forced to labor without reward. The complaint of an individual thrall was punished with stripes and torture; at the least sign of discontent whole towns were declared in rebellion, subdued by force of arms, and sold into captivity in provinces remote from those of their birth. By their victims this tyranny was contrasted with the treatment they were wont to receive from Cortés, whereat they all the more revered his name. These wrongs they dared commit in the very neighborhood of the capital, though more especially in the outlying provinces.[1]
- ↑ Among the outrages are instanced the crucifixion of a cacique to extort gold, besides the hanging of minor individuals, and the appropriation of Guzman, for his mills, of the Tacubaya aqueduct, to the prejudice of 2,000 natives who were dependent on its water. Zumárraga, Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiii, 126-7, 161; Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série ii, tom. v. 115-16.
