the black crime of having foully and without provocation murdered the kind-hearted Caltzontzin.[1]
These proceedings materially affected the progress of the expedition, for the news spreading throughout the neighboring districts caused the natives either to fly, or to rise in defence of their homes, only to encounter certain defeat. Any other leader would have been startled by the desolation which met his eye on every side, but Guzman seemed rather to accept it as a flattering tribute to his renown, and made light of the alarm manifested by some of his followers, declaring that he would assume the responsibility before the crown of all his acts.
During the stay of nearly two weeks at the camp by the ford of Purificacion, and while the proceedings against Caltzontzin were carried on, detachments were sent out in different directions to receive the submission of the towns, and they met with no resistance.[2] Then, after military ordinances were published, the army started down the river on or near the northern bank, and after a march of six days arrived on the borders of Cuinao, or Coynan province, watered by the stream known afterward as the Zula. Chirinos, the late worthy associate of the tyrant Salazar, who accompanied the expedition as captain, was sent in advance to demand submission. He found the chief town abandoned, and the inhabitants in rapid flight,
- ↑ It is fair to present the excuses that have been offered for Guzman's act. Oviedo, iii. 564-5, says the king refused to give information about the northern country, and that he confessed the murder of 35 Spaniards, whose remains were used at pagan festivals. Salazar y Olarte, Conq. Mex., 426, tells us he had relapsed into idolatry and sacrificed Spaniards, dressing himself in the skins of the victims. Mota Padilla, Cong. N. Gal., 23-4, says he was accused of disloyal plots, was formally tried and convicted, and that so learned a lawyer as Guzman would not have proceeded illegally! Guzman himself in Carta a S. M., in Ramusio, iii. 331, says that Tangaxoan was tried on many charges, especially that of rebellious designs, impudently referring to the records of the trial. If from the standpoint of the times we admit relapse into idolatry as a justification for his death, it is very evident from the friendship of the friars for Caltzontzin that there was no such relapse in his case.
- ↑ Mota Padilla, Cong. N. Gal., 27, without naming any authority, states that one of these expeditions penetrated to Guanajuato. According to Tello, Guanajuato was then conquered. Both Mota Padilla and Navarrete, who follows him, Hist. Jal., 29, mention Penjamo as one of the pueblos subjected at this time.
