e a more successful
expedition against the Zapotecs, and we completely subdued them, and
other provinces in that quarter. The pious father Olmedo also did his
utmost to give them some notion of the holy Christian religion: he
taught them the articles of faith, preached to them, and of these
Indians alone he baptized above a hundred; but he was unable to continue
this holy occupation very long, as he was growing old and infirm;
besides that, his enfeebled frame could not stand the ruggedness of the
roads.

I must now, however, return to Mexico, and relate what magnificent
presents Cortes sent to his Majesty in Spain.

CHAPTER CLXX.

_How Cortes sends a present to his majesty; 80,000 pesos in gold and
silver, besides a magnificent field-piece made of silver and gold,
covered with various beautiful figures; also how he sends his father
Martin Cortes above 5000 pesos._

Cortes had by this time collected about 80,000 pesos, and now also the
field-piece was finished, which received the name of Phoenix, and was in
every way a present worthy of the acceptance of so renowned a sovereign
as our great emperor. This beautiful cannon was cast of silver, and bore
the following inscription:

No bird like this was ever born,
As a servant I have no second,
And you have not your equal in the world.

Cortes therefore determined to forward all this treasure to his majesty
in Spain, and commissioned a nobleman of Toledo, named Diego de Soto to
be the bearer: whether Juan de Ribera, who squinted with one eye, and
had been Cortes' private secretary, accompanied this gentleman, I cannot
exactly remember; but one thing I know, that very little reliance could
be placed in his honesty. I also imagined that he played falsely at
cards and cheated at dice; besides which he possessed many other bad
qualities. I merely mention all this because he behaved so villanously
to Cortes in Spain, for he not only kept back the money which the latter
confided to his care for his father Martin Cortes,[42] but he repaid
kindness with ingratitude, and so far forgot all the favours which
Cortes had bestowed upon him, that, instead of speaking good of our
general, or even the truth, he calumniated his benefactor in every
possible manner. As this Ribera was a man who possessed considerable
eloquence, and as he had been private secretary to Cortes, his
aspersions were generally credited in Spain, by the bishop of Burgos in