. History of the discovery and conquest of Costa Rica . d that his feetshould be roasted before a fire. Crazed then withpain, the unhappy man cried out to them to stopthe torture and he would take them to the spotwhere the gold was buried. Having then con-ducted them to the hill of Corotapa, where theysaw the remains of Marbella fort, which had beenburned and destroyed by the Indians, he con-fessed with groans, when interrogated again, thathe knew nothing of the gold and had told whatwas not true to avoid further torture. The fero-cious Rodrigo de Contreras then ordered him tobe hanged; but af
. History of the discovery and conquest of Costa Rica . d that his feetshould be roasted before a fire. Crazed then withpain, the unhappy man cried out to them to stopthe torture and he would take them to the spotwhere the gold was buried. Having then con-ducted them to the hill of Corotapa, where theysaw the remains of Marbella fort, which had beenburned and destroyed by the Indians, he con-fessed with groans, when interrogated again, thathe knew nothing of the gold and had told whatwas not true to avoid further torture. The fero-cious Rodrigo de Contreras then ordered him tobe hanged; but after his victim was already halfdead, cut the rope and caused him to be resus-citated. When Corzo had regained conscious-ness, he was asked for the last time to tell wherethe gold had been concealed. He answeredfinally that he knew nothing about it and beggedthem to put an end to his torment, which wasdone. Such were the works of Rodrigo de Con-treras, an illustrious caballero of Segovia, a man iSioiiiiiffiíiiífiiíiiiiiPiilijiJiiii] íi y]J [I fi^ ^. CONQUEST OF COSTA RICA 159 born of the highest nobihty.^^ Of this tyrant thehistorian Fernández de Oviedo speaks in laud-atory terms.^* Bancroft does the same and evengoes so far as to commend him as a just andhmnane Governor/^ With an estimate now trueto hfe, Don José D. Gámez shows him in a muchless favorable light when he states that he wasexecrated by all in Nicaragua. ^^ So also doesDon Tomás Ayón in relating that there werelodged against him the gravest accusations. ^^Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas accuses him of be- Rodrigo de Contreras was descended from Diego Gonzálezde Contreras, corregidor (correctional magistrate) of Segovia,and of Doña Angelina of Greece, a lady of the royal house ofHungary, formerly a slave of Bajazet I, who was taken pris-oner, with the Sultan her master, at the battle of Ancyra byTamerlane. This famous conqueror sent her as a gift to theKing of Castile, Don Enrique III., who in his turn gave
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