bound to have given to us and our children all the good offices in the kingdom of New Spain; but be thought only of himself and his favourites.  In our opinion, who were the conquerors, the whole country ought to have been divided into five equal parts, allotting one to the crown, another for the holy church, and the remaining three parts to Cortes and the rest of us, who were the true original conquerors, giving each a share in perpetuity in proportion to our rank and merits, considering that we had not only served his majesty in gratuity, but without his knowledge, and, almost against his will.  This arrangement would have placed us at our ease; instead of which, many of us are wandering about, almost without a morsel to eat, and God only knows what may become of our children.

To the veedor Pedro Alonzo Chirinos, Gonzalo Salazar the factor, Rodrigo Albornos the contador, and many others who came now from Spain, and to the dependents of great men, who flattered him and told him fine tales, Cortes refused nothing; but he treated us the true conquerors like vassals, forgetting us entirely in the distribution of property, yet never failing to call upon us when he wanted our assistance, as if we had been fit only for expeditions and battles.  I do not blame him for being generous, as there was enough for all; but he ought in the first place to have considered those who had served his majesty in the conquest of this noble kingdom, and to whose blood and valour he was indebted for his own elevation.  Long afterwards, when Luis Ponce de Leon came out to supersede Cortes, we the veteran conquerors represented to our general that he ought to give us that property which he had been ordered by his majesty to resign.  He expressed his sorrow for having so long neglected us, and promised even with an oath, that he would provide for us all, if he returned to his government, thinking to satisfy us with smooth words and empty promises.

[1] This probably alludes to lawyers, as on a former occasion, Diaz
    mentions a request from the Spaniards that none of that fraternity
    might be sent over to New Spain, probably to avoid the introduction of
    litigious law suits.—­E.

SECTION XIX.

Of an Expedition against the Zapotecas, and various other Occurrences.

Intelligence was brought to Mexico that the Zapotecas were in rebellion, on which Rodrigo Rangel, whom I have several times mentioned already, solicited Cortes to be appointed to the command of an expedition for their reduction, that he too might have an opportunity of acquiring fame, proposing likewise to take Pedro de Ircio along with him as his lieutenant and adviser.  Cortes knew well that Rangel was very unfit for any service of danger or difficulty, being a miserably diseased object, the effect of his sins, and put him off therefore by various excuses; but as he was a very slanderous fellow, whom he wished to get rid of,