Note XI‑18 — Chapter XI · EXPEDITION OF DIEGO GUTIERREZ TO COSTA RICA. 1540-1545.

There is little doubt that Benzoni's narrative of the expedition of Gutierrez is somewhat colored in consequence of a rupture between himself and the governor. 'The first day that we entered the port,' he says, 'the governor graciously placed me at his table, and took pleasure in conversing with me. The greater part of his conversation was about gold and silver, and the wars, and the cruelties inflicted on wretched Italy, and especially on Milan. But when he perceived that such subjects were disagreeable to me, he took a dislike to me and never would bear the sight of me after.' It is, however, the only complete record of that event, and I can but give his version of it. Oviedo's information as to the early history of Costa Rica is taken from Juan de Espinosa, who accompanied Alonso de Pisa to Cartago in one of his return voyages. iii. 184. He was well acquainted with Gutierrez, and thus tries to palliate his faults: 'Desalmados ó pláticos que por acá han andado, que á los noviçios ó nuevamente venidos á gobernar los enseñen á robar;' and in consequence thereof 'por enriquesçer, presto vuelven la hoja, é trocado el intento con que partieron de España, si bueno era, ó afirmado en el cauteloso que en su pecho estaba callado, en poco tiempo manifiestan las obras el contrario de las palabras.' iii. 178.

Other authorities quoted in this chapter are Herrera, dec. vii. lib. iv. cap. xvii.; Benzoni, Mondo Nvovo, lib. ii. 83-92; Bejarano, Informe; Haya, Informe; Squier's MSS., xiii. 1-3; Juarros, Guat. (ed. London, 1823), 73-6, 341-5; Molina, Coup d'Oeil de Costa R., 4; Molina, Bosquejo Costa R., 10, 83-92; Molina, Costa R. and Nic., 6-8, 36-8; Mosquito Doc. 27, in 77-229; Morel de Sta Cruz, Visita Apost., MS., 14; Reichardt, Cent. Am., 111, 112; Salv., Diar. Ofic. 30 Mar. 1876, 618.

The time of Diego Gutierrez' fight with the Indians and death, as given by Oviedo, is contradicted in an official manuscript extant that places it in December 1544. It is the investigation made in Leon, Nicaragua, on the 25th of June, 1545, and the writer assures us he has an authenticated copy of it. Peralta's autograph note in Peralta, Rio San Juan, 9.