Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/56

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36
PREPARATION FOR FURTHER CONQUEST.

de Lugo. Sandoval, Grado, Briones, Bernal Diaz, and others, also took up either residence or grants here, the latter extending from the Zapotec country to the sea, and from the southern limits of Medellin district into Tabasco.[1]

Hardly had the repartition been made before Sandoval was called away, and when the settlers began to levy tribute, nearly all the districts revolted, several settlers being killed. They were pacified after considerable trouble, only to rise again at intervals in different quarters.[2] More settlers came, however, and with fertile and populous grants they prospered so well that the towns to the north grew jealous and obtained a curtailment of the district; later settlements in Tabasco, Chiapas, and Oajaca, laid claim to other portions, and Espiritu Santo soon dwindled.[3]

At the time that Sandoval set forth on the Goazacoaleo campaign, another expedition was despatched against Zapotecapan and Miztecapan, a region alternating in fertile valleys and rugged mountains, and covering the modern state of Oajaca; the former lying to the east, round the sources of Goazacoalco, and stretching to Tehuantepec; the latter divided into upper and lower Miztecapan, covering respectively the lofty Cohuaixtlahuacan and the sea-bathed Tututepec. Although distinct in language from the inhabitants of Anáhuac, the people possessed the culture of the Nahuas, and have been hastily classed as an

  1. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 165-7, names a number of the settlers, several of whom did not remain as residents; he also gives the native names of provinces, as Copilco, Cimatan, Tauasco, Cachula, Zoqueschas, Tacheapac, Cinacantan, Quilenes, Papanachasta, Citla, Chontalpa, Pinula, Chinanta, Xaltepec, Tepeca. Cortés names Chimaclan, Quizaltepec, Cimaclan, and others. Cartas, 261.
  2. Bernal Diaz relates his narrow escape from death during a parley with rebels, Two of his companions were killed in a sudden attack, and he was wounded in the throat. After hiding a while he was aided by his sole surviving comrade to escape. Hist. Verdad., 177.
  3. At the present day the district has revived, the population centring in Minatitlan, on the northern bank of the river, and about 20 miles from the mouth. Alvarado sought in 1535 to have the port annexed to Guatemala, as a base for supplies. Cartas, MS., xix. 35-6; Herrera, dec. iii. lib. iii. cap. xi.