Note IX‑24 — Chapter IX · AFFAIRS IN HONDURAS. 1527-1536.

Herrera says that affairs in the province were in a sad plight, for Cereceda, 'cuya crueldad excedia a toda humana prudencia,' had lost all control over his men. dec. vi. lib. i. cap. viii. Montejo, who afterward became governor of Honduras, also speaks in very disparaging terms of Cereceda. 'All the time he was in Zula and Naco he never moved two leagues from his abode. Of the 27 or 28 towns in existence when he reached the country he did not leave a single one. He destroyed everything, even the cattle and mares. The people he brought away in irons, leaving some towns without a single inhabitant. He and his advisers, a priest named Juan Ávila and a certain Juan Ruano, had laid waste the best portion of Honduras.' Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., ii. 240-1.