CHAPTER IV

    How the Licentiate Santa Cruz sent captains and troops in pursuit of Vadillo, of the differences there were between them, and how they joined Robledo.

I SHOULD be well pleased if I could continue my writing without digressions, for it is quite long enough without treating of other histories, yet I am obliged to do so that my narrative may be understood. For I want, above all, to satisfy my readers. Therefore, with the brevity which is my wont, I will relate the events that we are following up. The reader is sure to remember that, in an earlier part of my history I mentioned how, when Don Pedro de Heredia was Governor of Cartagena, the Licentiate Juan de Vadillo came to hold a residencia. After several things had happened, an account of which I omit for reasons already given, he set out with followers in the way I have described in the part where I treated of him.[20] As Heredia remonstrated, his Majesty appointed as Judge the Licent[11]iate Santa Cruz, who governed the province of Cartagena well, and founded there the city of Mompox. As Vadillo would not submit, the Judge ordered troops to be got ready, and sent Juan Greciano as his lieutenant in charge of them, with powers to administer justice to the men Vadillo had raised, and orders to send them back to Cartagena. But now, when the troops were about to start. Judge Santa Cruz made a great mistake. This was to appoint one Luis Bernal as captain to carry on a war with the Indians wherever he might pass. Thus with one holding a commission as lieutenant and the other as captain, the expedition left Cartagena. Having arrived at the port of Urabá early in the year 1538, they began the march, and from the first few days parties were formed, each captain wanting to be superior to the others, while the soldiers joined those who had most to offer, so that although the men were few, the confusion was great, and as suspicions increased, the quarrels became worse. I am not astonished at this for whether in an army, or a company, or in the smallest province or the widest kingdom, if there are two heads it is impossible that there can be good government. And thus, too, said Alexander, when Darius sought for peace by offering a part of his dominions, that the world could not be governed by two heads, and that only one could hold the empire.

Marching in the way I have described, the expedition from Cartagena arrived at the mountains of Abibe, and, as the road had been opened by us when we came with Vadillo, they crossed the range without much difficulty. In this forest some young men killed a snake or serpent, which was so big that it had an entire deer with its horns in its inside. In what way can the creature have swallowed it! The Spaniards, and their quarrels, travelled with all possible haste, and after having gone through great hardships, and suffered much from hunger, they arrived at the borders of the province of Anzerma. As they found plenty[12] of provisions they remained there for several days. The quarrels among them came to such a pitch that Juan Greciano, in the name of the King, wanted to arrest Luis Bernal, and Luis Bernal, in the same royal name, wanted to arrest Greciano. Some of their followers joined one side, and some the other, all taking up arms. At the time that this happened the captain Ruy Vanegas arrived at a hill called Umbra, on which a town was afterwards founded, and being very near the other party of Spaniards, they could see each other. This was why those from Cartagena did not come to blows, which evil would have been inevitable until one or other of the leaders was killed. When the two parties of Spaniards saw each other their delight was great.

Ruy Vanegas sent the news to the captain Jorge Robledo who, at a village called Garma, had founded the city of Santa Ana de los Caballeros, now called the town of Anzerma. Thither went the Spaniards from Cartagena and gave their obedience to Robledo. The lieutenant Juan Greciano, complained of the conduct of Luis Bernal and the others, who were banished. Robledo sent messengers to Lorenzo de Aldana with an account of all that had happened; and Aldana wrote a very full report to the Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro. As the site for the town presented some difficulties, the new town was removed to the hill called Umbra where it now stands.