About this time a vessel arrived at Villa Rica with three or four score of adventurers, under Captain Coronado, and being told of the fabulously rich Mexico they resolved to lose no time in following the army, in order to secure a share of treasures. It was just after the flight from Mexico, and the provinces were in arms, elated at the triumphs at the lake. On approaching the Tepeaca district the party was surprised, and partly slaughtered, partly captured, the prisoners being distributed among the towns of the province for sacrifice.[1]
These reports created no small alarm for the safety of Villa Rica, and several Tlascaltec messengers were sent with letters, by different routes, to bring news. Orders were also given to the comandante to forward powder, fire-arms, bows, and other necessaries that he could spare, together with some men, sailors, if no others were available. The reply was reassuring, for although the natives had fuller particulars of the disaster at Mexico than Cortés had chosen to impart to the garrison, yet everything remained quiet. The
- ↑ Herrera places the number of the party at 50 or 60. dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xv. Bernal Diaz speaks of the slaughter in Tochtepec of 72 men and 5 women, and he leaves the impression that they were a part of the Narvaez force which had followed the army at their leisure. Hist. Verdad., 108. This is no doubt the party described in the text. Yet Herrera, in cap. xvii., refers to the destruction at Tochtepec of a force of 80 men under Captain Salcedo, who was sent to reduce this province a few months later. This incident, mentioned by no other original authority, may be identical with the preceding. Had the party in question belonged to the original force of Narvaez it would have accompanied Yuste and Alcántara. Such not being the case, it must have arrived after their departure. This receives confirmation from Gomara's statement that several small parties, who had been attracted to New Spain by Cortés' conquests, were killed in Tepeaca and Xalacinco. Hist. Mex., 173. The narratives of Bernal Diaz and Cortés specify some of these, numbering from ten to eighteen men, who fell at Quecholac, Tepeaca, and other places. It is not likely that so many small parties could have arrived on the coast during the short interval of Cortés' departure from Cempoala and his retreat to Tlascala; nor that they would have ventured in small numbers into a strange country, during so unquiet a period; nor would a mere dozen have been allowed to penetrate so far as Tepeaca ere they met their fate. Hence they must have belonged to the large party spoken of in the text, whose members, dead or captive, were distributed among the different towns which had aided in their defeat. This appears to be the only way to reconcile the differing statements, which have so confused every writer as to lead them into apparent blunders or into the omission of facts. See Robertson's Hist. Am., ii. 99; Prescott's Mex., ii. 409-10; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., iv. 353-5.
