and rewarded supporters by appointing Bachiller Juan de Ortega alcalde mayor of the country, Andrés de Tapia, alguacil mayor, Jorge de Alvarado, alcalde of the arsenal, and Saavedra Ceron, lieutenant at Vera Cruz and adjoining ports, while the council was strengthened with two new men to take the place of obstreperous members, Comendador Cervantes being promoted to joint alcalde with Juan de la Torre.[1]
On leaving the council, the party joined the gathered citizens, now about five hundred strong, and marched to the residence of Salazar. The new governors were kept in the centre, Tapia and Alvarado led the van, and a notary and a crier attended to attest and announce the new order of affairs. On reaching the house they found it held by some two hundred men, protected by a strong battery.[2] After arranging for the distribution of his force, Tapia demanded a parley. Although he and his comrades had been deeply injured, they bore no malice, but desired peace. Salazar had declared himself empowered to arrest Cortés. Let him exhibit this and other orders from the authorities in Spain, and they would obey him. If he possessed no such anthority, it behooved all loyal men to adhere to Cortés, or his substitute, as the legal representative of the king. Salazar replied that he had no such orders, but had acted as he thought best under the circumstances. He would continue to rule or perish in the attempt. "Gentlemen, you hear!" cried Tapia to those attend-
- ↑ Tapia claims to have been invested with the office of captain-general, or rather with the control, under the governors, of the military department. Herrera, dec. iii. lib. viii. cap. v. Ortega was afterward arraigned for accepting the office of alcalde mayor. He was a graduate of Salamanca University and about 50 years of age. Ortega, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xxx. 7. Ocaña, Carta, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., 1. 527, and witnesses in Cortés, Residencia, i. 81, stamp the changes made by the new movement as effected by intimidation and force. According to them two regidores and one of the alcaldes were placed under arrest. One of these regidores was Mejía, probably an alternate, who figures shortly after among the loyal ones in directing a statement to the king against Salazar. Testimonio Mex., in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiii. 34-45.
- ↑ Loaisa, in Oviedo, iii. 525. Herrera raises the number to 1,000, with 12 cannon.
