Note XVII‑15 — Chapter XVII · AFFAIRS IN HONDURAS. 1537-1549.

Montejo was on bad terms with Pedraza, but gained his intercession by approaching him when he was in an amiable mood. He accuses him of boasting that his authority was greater than that of the governor and that a letter from him to the emperor would at once procure his dismissal. He also states that on one occasion he was compelled to turn back from an expedition on which he had started, news having reached him that Pedraza was disturbing the country by his harsh treatment of the Indians, and that he had some difficulty in restoring quiet. Montejo, in Id., 248-51, 258-9. It is not improbable that this may have been the case, for in a letter quoted in Squier's MSS., xxii. 26, 27, Pedraza states that in 1547 he petitioned for leave to found a settlement in the Indian village of Jutical, in Comayagua, and to grant repartimientos to those who should furnish him the means, claiming that he was specially inspired by the holy spirit to carry out the pacification of the natives by prayer and persuasion. The ecclesiastic was a young man; vain, ambitious, covetous, and one who would not hesitate to prostitute his profession if it would serve his own interests.