CHAPTER XIII.
ESTRADA'S RULE — CORTÉS DRIVEN TO SEEK JUSTICE IN SPAIN.
1527.
Campaign in Zapotecapan — Spice Island Projects — Loaisa's Expedition — Guevara Finds the Wat to Zacatula — Saavedra's Voyage to the Moluccas — Cortés Slighted — He is Exiled from the Capital — Reconciliation with Estrada — Guzman Appointed Governor of Pánuco — Finding No Gold, He Turns Oppressor — Encroachments on Mexico — Raid into Las Palmas Region — Slave-trade Horrors — Cortés to Plead before the Sovereign — Fears that He will Revolt — Preparing for the Voyage to Spain.
Under Aguilar's rule a number of expeditions had been sent out to open new districts, and to assure the subjugation of others. One force of nearly three hundred men prepared to disclose the mysteries of the region to the north, between Michoacan and the gulf soon to be famed for its mineral wealth. This project, intended as the precursor to an entry to the Rio de las Palmas region, was carried out only m part,[1] owing to changes m the plans of Cortés, but others were developed, involving the occupation of Tabasco and Chiapas, and the continuation of the campaign against the Zapotecs and Mijes, connected with the late Coatlan revolt.[2] In order to render this campaign more effective, two expeditions were sent to operate on the south and north sides respectively. The southern consisting of somewhat over one hundred men, with a
- ↑ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 282-3. The Palmas project was abandoned when news came that Narvaez had received a commission to conquer that district.
- ↑ A town had been formed with the Indians of Cortés to assure this district. Ocaña, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 526. The preceding expeditions, alluded to by Cortés, Cartas, 490-1, and Bernal Diaz, loc. cit., are treated or elsewhere.
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