Il6 NICARAGUA. 



had to fight in order to effect his passage through that 

 territory. 



In Panama, he related to the Governor all that he had 

 seen and done, and spoke highly of the country which he had 

 visited. But Pedrarias, who was a jealous man, and who 

 had shortly before passed sentence of death against Nunez, 

 took umbrage at Gonzalez, and sent a new expedition to 

 Nicaragua, headed by Hernande'z de Coj^doba, who was 

 successful, and founded the towns of Granada and Leon 

 without much opposition from the Indians. 



Gonzalez returned to Spain, called some followers and 

 came back, on his own account, to Nicaragua, via Honduras. 

 A civil war began between Gonzalez and Cordoba for the 

 possession of that country, and continued for a long time. 



Several years after, Hernandez de Contreras^ who lived 

 in Nicaragua, for some reason or other, revolted against Spain. 

 At the head of many Spaniards, who agreed with his ideas, 

 he took possession of Nicaragua and Panama ; and it was 

 said that he had the intention to conquer Peru also, and to make 

 an independent kingdom of the whole ; but it came to naught 

 in consequence of his death, which took place soon after an 

 attack made by hi^ri on Nombre de Dios, or Chagres. 



According to the celebrated historian and Bishop, 

 Bartolomé de las Casas, 60,000 Indians perished during the 

 first year of the wars fought against them by Gonzalez, 

 Hernandez de Cordoba and others. Here is what he says : — 



''The Indians of Nicaragua were very sociable, gentle 

 and peaceable. Nevertheless the Governor, or better say the 

 tyrant, and the ministers of his cruelty, treated them as badly 

 as in the other kingdoms. They murdered and robbed them 

 wholesale. Under the least pretext, they killed the inhabitants 

 without regard of sex or condition. They exacted from them 

 tribute of all sorts, and death was the penalty for those who 

 did not comply at once. Nobles, women and children were 

 obliged to work day and night. These poor people were 

 obliged to carry on their shoulders, at long distances, trunks 

 of trees or boards for the construction of ships. Thousands 

 of them were sent to Panama and in Peru to be sold there as 

 slaves. Over 500,000 of them were disposed of in that 

 manner, and banished from their country." 



Another ocular witness, Oviedo, in his History of 

 America also said that the treatment of the Indians was so 

 barbarous, that in 1528, when the treasurer, Alonzo de 

 .Peralta, another nobleman called Zurita, and the brothers 



