a conspiracy to assassinate Alvarado and his brothers. One of
the conspirators, named Tribejo, gave information of the plot to Father
Olmedo, only a few hours before it was intended to have been executed; and
the reverend Father informed Alvarado, just as he was riding out along
with some of the conspirators. He continued his intended excursion for a
short way; then turning suddenly, he complained of a pain in his side,
saying he must go back for a surgeon to bleed him. On his arrival at
quarters, he immediately sent for his two brothers, together with the
alcaldes and alguazils of the settlement, whom he ordered to arrest the
conspirators, two of whom were hanged. Alvarado returned to Mexico with
his gold; but the colonists finding all the gold taken away, and that the
place was hot and unhealthy, infested with musqutioes, bugs, and other
vermin, and themselve and slaves fast dying, they abandoned the settlement,
some going to Mexico, and others to different places. Cortes was much
displeased at this abandonment, and finding on inquiry that it had been
done by a resolution of the alcaldes and regidors in full cabildo, he
condemned them to suffer death; but their punishment, at the intercession
of Olmedo, was mitigated to banishment. Thus the settlement of Segura fell
to the ground, which had been established in a very fertile country, but
exceedingly unhealthy. By the cruelty and extortion of Alvarado, the minds
of the natives were alienated, and they threw off their allegiance; but he
reduced them again to submission, and they continued afterwards to behave
themselves peaceably.

[1] This expedition appears to have been for the reduction of certain
provinces to the south-east of the vale of Mexico, now forming the
intendency of Oaxaca, inhabited by the Mixtecas and Tzapotecas. The
Tustepeque of the text, was probably a town on the Boca de Chacahua on
the South Sea, now called Tututepec, in lat. 15