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Show FRANCISCO VASQUEZ CORONADO 209 who, as Castafieda relates, ‘“‘according to what he said, did not know about the peace and thought that they DON GARCIA LOPEZ DE had given themselves up of their own CARDENAS ORDERS THE accord, because they had been conMASSACRE OF THE INDIANS quered. As he had been ordered by the general not to take them alive, but to make an example of them so that the other natives would fear the Spaniards, he ordered 200 stakes to be prepared at once to burn them alive. Nobody told him about the peace that had been granted them, for the soldiers knew as little as he, and those who should have told him about it remained silent, not thinking that it was any of their business. Then when the enemies saw that the Spaniards were binding them and beginning to roast them, about a hundred men who were in the tent began to struggle and defend themselves with what there was there and with the stakes they could seize. Our men who were on foot attacked them on all sides, so that there was great confusion around it, and then the horsemen chased those who escaped. As the country was level, not a man of them remained alive, unless it was some who remained hidden in the village and escaped that night to spread throughout the country the news that the strangers did not respect the peace they had made, which afterwards proved a great misfortune.’’ 224 224 Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, returning to Spain, afterwards, in order to secure an inheritance, was imprisoned for this enormous act of cruelty and perfidy. Mota Padilla, xxxii, 6, p. 161, relates that ‘‘Esta accion se tuvo en Espafia por mala, y con razon, porque fue una crueldad considerable; y habiendo el maese de campo, estuvo preso en una Garcia Lopez, fortaleza pasado 4 Espafia 4 heredar un mayorazgo, por este cargo.’’ See also Bandelier, Final Report, part ii, p. 223. Also Escudero, Noticias Estadisticas de Sonora y Sinaloa, pp. 27-29. ce In the Relacion del Suceso, a different account of this affair is given; in that account it is said: ‘‘When Hernando de Alvarado returned from these plains to the river which was called Tiguex, he found the army-master Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas getting ready for the whole army, which was coming there. When it arrived, although all these people had met Hernando de Alvarado peacefully, part of them rebelled when all the foree came. There were twelve villages near together, and one night they killed 40 of our horses and mules which were loose in the camp. They fortified themselves in their villages and war was declared against them. Don Garcia Lopez went to the first and took it and executed justice on many of them. When the rest saw this, they abandoned all except two of the villages, one of these the strongest of them all, around which the army was kept for two months. And although after we invested it, we entered it one day and occupied a part of the flat roof, we were forced to abandon this on account of the many wounds that were received and |