Note 49 — Chapter VI
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Ixtlilxochitl, who would fain make his royal kinsman a sort of residuary legatee for all unappropriated, or even doubtful, acts of heroism, puts in a sturdy claim for him on this occasion. A painting, he says, on one of the gates of a monastery of Tlatelolco, long recorded the fact that it was the Tezcucan chief who saved the life of Cortés. (Venida de los Éspañoles, p. 38.) But Camargo gives the full credit of it to Olea, on the testimony of “a famous Tlascalan warrior,” present in the action, who reported it to him. (Hist. de Tlascala, MS.) The same is stoutly maintained by Bernal Diaz, townsman of Olea, to whose memory he pays a hearty tribute, as one of the best men and bravest soldiers in the army. (Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 152, 204.) Saavedra, the poetic chronicler,—something more of a chronicler than poet,—who came on the stage before all that had borne arms in the Conquest had left it, gives the laurel also to Olea, whose fate he commemorates in verses that at least aspire to historic fidelity:
“Túvole con las manos abraçado, Y Francisco de Olea el valeroso, Vn valiente Español, y su criado Le tiró vn tajo brauo y riguroso: Las dos manos á cercen le ha cortado, Y él le libró del trance trabajoso Huuo muy gran rumor, porque dezian, Que ya en prision amarga le tenian. “Llegáron otros Indios arriscados, Y á Olea matáron en vn punto, Cercáron á Cortés por todos lados, Y al miserable cuerpo ya difunto; Y viendo sus sentidos recobrados, Puso mano á la espada y daga junto. Antonio de Quiñones llegó luego, Capitan de la guarda ardiendo en fuego.” El Peregrino Indiano, Canto 20.