_How our agents in Spain brought certain accusations against the
bishop of Burgos, and what further happened._
The reader must have seen, from what I have stated in former chapters,
that the bishop of Burgos and archbishop of Rosano, Don Juan Rodriguez
de Fonseca, favoured Diego Velasquez in every way, and that, on the
other hand, he took every opportunity of thwarting the designs of Cortes
and of all of us. But now, by divine permission of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the holy father Adrian[35] was elected Pope in the year 1521;
and as this happened at the time he was governor of Spain, our agents
repaired to the town of Vittoria, where he was then residing, to kiss
his holiness's feet. There arrived with them, at the same time, in
Vittoria, a German gentleman of distinction named La Chau,[36] who had
been despatched thither by the emperor to congratulate the new Pope. As
this gentleman had heard a great deal of the heroic deeds of Cortes and
his troops, how we had conquered New Spain, what great and memorable
services we had rendered to his majesty, and of the many thousands of
Indians we had converted to Christianity, he supplicated his holiness to
investigate the matter of dispute between Cortes and the bishop of
Burgos. To this his holiness consented, and he immediately took the
matter in hand, which he did the more earnestly, as the complaints of
our agents had emboldened several other men of distinction to prefer
charges of injustice and oppression against the bishop. This bishop was,
upon the whole, detested, as, in his capacity of president of the
council of the Indies, during the emperor's absence in Flanders, he had
governed in the most arbitrary manner; notwithstanding this, it was a
matter of no small difficulty for our agents to reject him as the judge
in our own affairs.
Francisco de Montejo, Diego de Ordas, the licentiate Francisco Nunez,
and Martin Cortes, were purposely staying at Valladolid to wait an
opportunity of preferring their charges against the bishop. In this
place they found great protection and favour from several distinguished
cavaliers and grandees of the court, particularly from the duke of
Bejar, so that our agents were emboldened to maintain with great
firmness that they could not acknowledge the bishop as judge in their
affairs, for which they gave the following reasons:
Firstly. Diego Velasquez had given the bishop of Burgos a very lucrative
commendary in Cuba, the gold mines of which the former worked with the
inhabitants of the island, and sent the produce to Spain for the
bishop. Not one of the townships of that island had Velasquez set apart
for the emperor, although he was so greatly indebted to him.
Secondly. In the year 1517 one hundred and ten of us, under an officer
named Cordoba, had fitted out an armament at our own expense, with which
we had discovered and explored the coast of New Spain. The circumstances
relative to the expedition had been so represented to his majesty by the
bishop of Burgos, as if Velasquez had fitted out the armament at his own
expense, and had discovered the country himself, although he had had
nothing to do with it either one way or the other.
Thirdly. It was not until this expedition returned that Velasquez sent
out one of his nephews, named Juan Grijalva, with a small armament to
make further discoveries. Grijalva returned to Cuba with above 20,000
pesos' worth of gold, the greater part of which found its way into the
pocket of the bishop, and not a fraction of it was paid into the royal
treasury.
Fourthly. When Cortes, during the progress of the conquest of New Spain,
despatched Montejo and Puertocarrero, cousin to the earl of Medellin, to
Spain, with the sun of gold, the moon of silver, and the gold dust, with
various kinds of jewels and trinkets as a present to his majesty,
accompanied by despatches from Cortes and all the Conquistadores,
containing a full account of our transactions in the new world, the
bishop refused to give our agents an audience, and abused them in a most
shameful manner, calling them traitors and the agents of a traitor, and
took away from them the present we had destined for his majesty. He
suppressed our despatches to the emperor, and sent his majesty an
account which was the very opposite of ours, and had represented matters
in such a way as though everything came from his creature Diego
Velasquez. But he did not stop here; for he retained the greater part of
the valuable present himself, and when Puertocarrero begged permission
of the bishop to repair in person to his majesty in Flanders, he cast
him into prison, where he died.
Fifthly. The bishop had forbidden the two chief harbour-masters of
Seville to allow any vessels having on board troops, ammunition, or
other matters for Cortes, to leave that harbour.
Sixthly. The bishop, without authority from his majesty, had wished to
give the most important appointments to men who neither possessed the
requisite talents nor merited to fill such offices: for instance, the
government of New Spain he had conferred upon Christobal de Tapia, who
could not even have been intrusted with an inferior command, and whose
only claim to that office was his marriage with Dona Petronella de
Fonseca, a niece of the bishop, and a near relative of Velasquez.
And lastly. The bishop lent a favorable ear to all the false statements
of Velasquez's agents, while he suppressed, distorted, and garbled the
true and faithful accounts which Cortes and the rest of us despatched to
his majesty.
These and other complaints against the bishop, which were accompanied by
undeniable proofs were properly drawn up by our agents, and with these
they repaired to Saragossa, where his holiness was staying, to whom they
handed over this document and challenged the bishop as an unfit person
to be judge in these matters.
After his holiness had perused this representation of the case, and had
convinced himself that there was very little truth with regard to the
enormous expenses to which Velasquez pretended to have put himself, and
that upon the whole he had only had the interest of his patron and the
bishop at heart; but that Cortes, on the other hand, had had the
interest of the emperor in view, his holiness not only declared that the
bishop was unfit to preside as judge in the dispute between Cortes and
Velasquez, but superseded him as president of the council of the Indies.
His holiness at the same time appointed Cortes governor of New Spain,
and decreed that Velasquez was to be reimbursed for his expenses in
fitting out the armament. His holiness also sent several papal bulls
with a number of indulgences for the hospitallers and the churches of
New Spain, and addressed a separate letter to Cortes, and the whole of
us Conquistadores, in which his holiness admonished us to use our utmost
endeavours to convert the Indians to Christianity; to abolish all human
sacrifices and other abominations from the country, and to gain the
friendship of the people: hereby we should merit the highest rewards
from his majesty, and his holiness, as the pastor of our souls, would
supplicate the Almighty in prayer to send a blessing on our endeavours
in the service of Christianity. This letter was likewise accompanied by
other bulls, by which absolution was granted us for all the sins we had
committed during the conquest.
After this very favorable decision of his holiness, both as supreme
pontiff and governor of Spain, our agents themselves wrote to his
majesty, who had just arrived from Flanders,[37] and inclosed certain
papers which had been drawn up by his holiness respecting the
subject-matter. His majesty, after making the most minute inquiries into
the affair, confirmed the decision of the pope, appointed Cortes
governor of New Spain, and also ordered that Velasquez should be
reimbursed the expenses of the expedition. But the emperor even went
further than this, and deprived Velasquez of the government of Cuba,
because he had fitted out the armament under Narvaez for New Spain
without his permission, and in opposition to the commands of the royal
court of audience at St. Domingo, and of the Hieronymite brotherhood;
also because he had refused to obey the orders of the auditor Vasquez de
Aillon, and had even had the audacity to throw him into prison, though
he had been expressly despatched to Cuba by order of the royal court of
audience to forbid the armament leaving this island.
When the bishop of Burgos was informed of the decision to which his
holiness and his majesty had come, he fell ill from excessive vexation,
quitted the court and retired to his country seat at Toro. His brother,
Don Antonio de Fonseca,[38] lord of Coca and Alaexos, tried all in his
power to get him reinstated into his late office, but all his endeavours
proved fruitless with the emperor.
Thus, all in a moment, everything terminated favorably for Cortes, but
the instability of good fortune soon began to show itself, for now
Narvaez, Christobal de Tapia, and the soldier Cardenas brought heavy
accusations against him. To all of which was added the charges preferred
against our general by the pilot Umbria, whom Cortes had sentenced to
have his legs cut off on the occasion when Cermenno and Escudero were
hung for a conspiracy they had formed against his life.