Chapter CLXXIII

_How Cortes sent out a captain, named Francisco de las Casas against
Christobal de Oli, on receiving intelligence that this officer had
made common cause with Diego Velasquez, and had renounced all
further obedience to him._

In order to render this chapter quite intelligible to the reader I must recur to prior events. I mentioned above that Cortes fitted out an armament for the Honduras and Higueras, the command of which he intrusted to Christobal de Oli. It was not long before our general received intelligence of the unfortunate termination of this expedition, as far as regarded himself. When, therefore, he learnt that Oli had made common cause with Diego Velasquez, and had determined to act independent of him, he became very pensive. But, as he was remarkably spirited, and not accustomed to joke in matters of this kind, he at once determined either to march against Oli in person, or to send out an officer against him on whom he could place implicit reliance, as he had previously declared to his majesty.

About this time there had arrived in Mexico a cavalier, named Francisco de las Casas. As he was a man in whom he could confide, being also related to him, he resolved to send him against Oli. For this purpose he fitted out a small armament, consisting of five vessels, well provided with cannon and other ammunition. On board of this fleet he embarked one hundred men, among whom were several of the veteran Conquistadores, as for instance, Pedro Moreno Medrano, Juan Nunez de Mercado, Juan Vello, and many others, whose names I will not mention, as they died on their way thither.

Francisco de las Casas received full powers from Cortes to seize Oli and throw him into chains. He set sail from Vera Cruz with very favorable weather, and arrived in a short time in the bay of Triunfo de la Cruz, where Oli had founded a town of the same name, and in front of which his vessels lay at anchor. As Francisco de las Casas on entering the bay had hoisted a white flag, Oli scarcely knew what to think at first, but thought at all events it was better to be upon his guard, and ran out two of his smallest vessels, well-armed with a strong body of men, in order to prevent Las Casas from entering into the harbour and landing his troops, though he was as yet quite ignorant who the new comers were. Las Casas, who was a man of great courage and determination, immediately lowered his boats, on board of which he placed one of the falconets and the most active of his men, well armed with muskets and crossbows, being resolved, he said, to land his troops some how or other. A severe conflict now ensued, in which Las Casas bored one of Oli's vessels into the ground, killed four of his men and wounded several others.

Christobal de Oli, seeing that matters were growing very serious, thought it advisable on his part to stay hostilities, in order to gain time to assemble all his troops about him; for he had, a few days previously, despatched two companies to the river Pechin against a certain Gil Gonsalez de Avila, who had begun to subdue the country there. He therefore sent word to Las Casas that he was desirous of making terms of peace with him; to which Las Casas so far consented that he staid hostilities for the present, and lay out at sea with his vessel for the night, in order to effect a landing in some other bay. How much more fortunate it would have been for him if he had acted according to the letter which was secretly thrust into his hand during the engagement! In this letter namely, several of Oli's men who favoured Cortes advised Las Casas by all means to land his troops without delay; that they would all run over to his side and deliver up Oli a prisoner to him. Fortunately for Oli, and unfortunately for Las Casas, a furious north wind, which is the most dangerous of all on this coast, arose during the night, and the whole of his vessels were wrecked; thirty of his men were drowned, and all the ammunition and stores went to the bottom. Las Casas and the rest of his men, after wandering about the country for two days benumbed with wet and cold, without a morsel of food to eat, were all taken prisoners by Oli's troops.

Christobal de Oli, it may be imagined, was excessively rejoiced that things had thus terminated so unexpectedly in his favour, and he exulted greatly in having the person of Las Casas in his power. He immediately took the latter's troops into his service, and compelled them to take a solemn oath never to desert him, but to oppose Cortes if he should come with an army against him; not until they had promised all this did he set them at liberty. Las Casas alone he kept a prisoner.

Shortly upon this the detachment also returned which had been sent against Gil Gonsalez de Avila. This man had arrived in the country with the appointment of governor of Golfo Dulce, and he had already founded, at about four miles distance from the bay of the same name, a town which he called San Gil de Buena Vista. The country bounding on the river Chipin was at that time inhabited by a very warlike people; and as by far the greater part of Gil Gonsalez's troops were suffering from ill health, the latter had only been able to throw a feeble garrison into the town of Buena Vista. Christobal de Oli had been duly apprized of this, and ordered the town to be attacked; but his troops could not so easily get possession of the place as they expected. Avila's small body of men defended themselves most vigorously, and eight of the soldiers, with a cousin of his, were killed. Christobal de Oli was both rejoiced and proud to have taken prisoners the chief commanders of two separate armaments; and as he bore the character of being an excellent soldier, which, indeed, no one could deny, and it was of importance to him that the success of his arms should be made known through the islands, he immediately sent information of his good fortune to the governor of Cuba.

After this victory he marched his troops towards the interior of the country to a large township named Naco, which lay in a very populous district. It was upon this occasion that Naco was completely destroyed, and the whole of the surrounding country laid waste, and this I relate from eyewitness, as I subsequently visited these parts myself, when I accompanied Cortes on his expedition to the Honduras, of which a full account will be given in the proper place.

From Naco, Oli sent out a strong detachment to forage the country, under the command of Briones, who had been one of the first to advise Oli to declare his independence of Cortes. This Briones was of a turbulent disposition, besides being very passionate, and had only the upper half of his ears left, having had the bottom halves, as he asserted, cut off by the enemy, while he, with several other officers, was obstinately defending some fortification. He terminated his life in a miserable manner, for he was subsequently hung at Guatimala for creating a sedition among the troops. Some time after Briones had been sent out by Oli to a distant part of the country with a considerable body of his troops, he received intelligence that he had deserted, with the whole of the men under his command, and was marching in the direction of New Spain; this news was indeed found to be perfectly correct.

This circumstance, Las Casas and Avila thought, presented to them a most favorable opportunity to rid themselves of Oli, who still continued to treat both of them as prisoners of war, though they were allowed to go at large, for Oli depended too much upon his own personal courage to fear anything from them. The whole of the adherents of Cortes secretly joined Las Casas and Avila, and they agreed upon a certain signal to fall upon Oli and stab him to death under the cry of "In the name of the emperor and of Cortes, down with the tyrant!" Everything had been arranged in the best possible manner for this purpose, and Las Casas, on one occasion said to Oli: "Senor captain, do grant me my liberty and allow me to return to New Spain, in order that I may render an account to Cortes of the unfortunate termination of this expedition? I promise you to become mediator between yourself and Cortes, and to procure for you the government, with the chief military command of this country, and I will myself see the appointment drawn up in due form. What can you gain by detaining me a prisoner, for I am only a hindrance to you in all your undertakings?" To this Oli replied, "That he was perfectly contented with things as they were, and that he was delighted to have a man of his worth about him."

"But have at least then," continued Las Casas, "some thought for your own personal safety, for I might get it into my head some day or other to put you to death!"

As Las Casas said all this in a joking humour, he took no notice of it, and continued as little on his guard as ever.

One evening Las Casas, Avila, Juan Nunez de Mercado, and other soldiers of Cortes' party were invited to sup with Oli. The first two, as prisoners of war, were not allowed to carry arms, but had concealed on their persons large knives, which were ground very sharp. The whole of the company had already laid aside their cloaks to seat themselves at table, and stood around Oli, discoursing on Cortes' good fortune and the conquest of the strong city of Mexico. As Christobal de Oli was thus quite off his guard, not in the least suspecting that there was any design upon his life, Las Casas, on a sudden, seized forcibly hold of his beard and stabbed him in the neck with his knife. Upon this the other conspirators fell in a body upon him, and gave him so many stabs, that he fell to the ground; but as he was a man of enormous muscular power he regained his consciousness, while the conspirators were sitting at table enjoying their suppers, and assembling all his strength he started up from the floor with the cry of: "_My friends, assist your captain!_" and then ran out to hide himself in the woods until his adherents should have rallied round him. And, indeed, a great part of his troops instantly assembled for this purpose; but Las Casas cried out to them: "In the name of the emperor and of Cortes I command you to fall upon the tyrant! His tyranny is no longer to be borne!"

As soon as these names were mentioned no one durst stir a finger in Oli's defence; on the contrary, every one quietly submitted and immediately obeyed Las Casas' commands, by hurrying off in search of Oli to bring him in a prisoner. He then made known that any one who knew of Oli's concealment and neglected to give information of it should suffer death.

By this means it was soon discovered where Oli lay concealed, and after he had been brought in a prisoner, a criminal suit was commenced against him in due form, and sentence of death being passed on him he was decapitated by order of these two officers, Las Casas and Avila on the market-place at Naco.

Thus miserably did Christobal de Oli end his days by listening to the advice of bad men, and forgetting how greatly he was indebted to Cortes, who had appointed him quartermaster-general, and had bestowed upon him lucrative commendaries. He had always proved himself a man of great courage, and was recently married to a Portuguese lady, named Filipa de Araujo, by whom he had a daughter.

As soon as Las Casas and Avila had got rid of their common enemy they assembled all the troops; they divided the command equally between themselves, and continued on the best terms with each other. Las Casas soon after founded the town of Truxillo, which he so called from his native place of Truxillo in Estremadura; and Avila despatched a small body of troops to the town which he had previously founded, called Buena Vista, in order to see what condition the colony was in. The command of this small detachment he gave to an officer named Armenta, with orders not to make any changes there, if at least he found everything in the same condition as when he left it; but to await his return from New Spain, whither he would immediately repair to beg Cortes for a fresh supply of troops. Las Casas likewise determined to proceed with Avila to Mexico, in order that they might jointly give Cortes an account of every circumstance that had transpired.

I must, however, close this chapter here, for I shall have to return to these occurrences in the proper part of my history; I have merely to observe, that Cortes did not receive intelligence of what I have just related till some considerable time after.