Em·ly Exploration of the Coast of Texas 35 for his long sojourn in the island. When he finally set out for Panuco in 1527, he had conceived a deadly hatred for Cortes. With two or three vessels and eighty men he made his way to Santiestevan, where he arrived on May 20, and was received with great rejoicing. "There were triumphal arches, processions, feasts, and universal joy, as is customary whenever there is a change of government, because it is always hoped that the new will be better than the old," wisely remarks Herrera. 84 The displays and festivities were short-lived. Guzman proceeded imme- diately to annul all the grants made by Cortes to his followers and the survivors of the Garay expedition who had been in the land since 1520. He claimed that since the time of Garay there had been no legal governor of the province with authority to give lands or encomiendas and that Garay had not made a single grant before his death. The lot of the Indians, however, became a thousand times worse than it had been. Before a year had passed, the entire native population had been decimated by the new governor. Declaring that the Indians of this region were unfit to be freemen or to be treated with leniency, he gave permission to his followers to export from twenty to thirty slaves each to the neigh- boring islands. He justified this barbarous measure by stating that each one of his men who took advantage of this dispensation was obliged to bring into the province a certain number of horses and cattle, which were much more necessary to the development of the new establishment. The trade in human beings proved so profitable that slave traders from the islands organized regular expeditions to the Panuco to purchase slaves there. "When the merchants saw that it was profitable, they came to the Province of Panuco drawn by the lure of gain and the request of Nuno de Guzman, who sent agents to charter ships in the ports of New Spain for the purpose. In this manner the land has been so exhausted that the province is desolated, destroyed, and ruined, as a result of having taken out nine or ten thousand souls, who were branded as slaves and sent to the islands. In truth, I believe," declares Bishop Zumarraga, "there were more than these, because over twenty-one ships [loaded with slaves] sailed from there ... The Indians have been filled with such fear and awe that they have decided, as the only remedy for their ills, and in accord with the orders of their chiefs, to abandon their homes and pueblos 84 Herrera, Historia, Dec. iv, Lib. iii, Cap. vii, p. 48, seems of the opinion that Guzman arrived in May, 1 528; G6mara, llistoria de las /11dias, p. 38; Carta a Su Magestad del Obispo de Mejico, D. Juan de Zumarraga . .. August 27 1 1529 1 in Pacheco y Cardenas, Documentos /neditos, Vol. 13, p. 117-121.
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