while there pleading his cause was summoned to receive his sentence before the great tribunal where all must one day render an account.[1]
In the agreement which Montejo made with the crown before proceeding to Yucatan, it was expressly stipulated that missionaries should accompany all his expeditions, and to his failure to fulfil this part of his agreement may be attributed many of his disasters. In 1530 a cédula was forwarded to the audiencia of Mexico, ordering that special efforts be made to supply this omission, and soon afterward Father Jacobo de Testera, with four others, arrived at the Spanish encampment on the Champoton.[2] They met with a friendly reception from the natives, says Cogolludo, "who brought to them their idols to be cast to the flames, and their children to be instructed in the faith." Many of the caciques tendered their allegiance; and but for the misconduct of a band of fugitive criminals, who, passing through the territory laden with idolatrous spoils, attempted to barter them for slaves, thus rousing the anger of the natives, the conquest of Yucatan might have been peaceably effected. Seeing that their lives were in danger, the friars made their escape by night, setting their faces toward Mexico; but after proceeding some fifty leagues
- ↑ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 245, affirms that Montejo died in Spain. The author of Datos, Biog., in Cartas de Indias, 807, alludes to a mistake made by Gil Gonzalez Dávila, who states that his death occurred at Mérida. The latter authority probably confuses the governor's decease with that of his son. In Ancona, Hist. Yuc., ii. 59-60, a work showing great research, it is stated that the former died in Spain. The adelantado married Doña Beatriz de Herrera, a lady of gentle birth. Their daughter Doña Catalina, who was his heiress, married the licentiate Alonso de Maldonado, the first president of the audiencia de los confines. His lieutenant Francisco was a natural son; but the stain on his birth was removed by an imperial rescript, dated April 6, 1627. By a royal order dated October 26, 1617, a yearly pension of 3,000 ducados, equal then to about $4,125, was granted to his heir Don Cristóbal Suarez Maldonado y Montejo, payable from the royal treasury of Mérida to himself and to those to whom he might bequeath it in perpetuity. In 1758 the duke of Montellano was the successor and to him was paid the pension in Mexico. Certificacion de las Mercedes, MS., 179-80.
- ↑ Fray Lorenzo de Bienvenida was one of the party. The names of the others are not known. The date of their arrival is uncertain. Cogolludo states that they came in 1531, Hist. Yucathan, 102-3; Torquemada in 1534, iii. 335.
