_How Cortes sends his majesty 30,000 pesos worth of gold, with an
account of the conversion of the Indians, the rebuilding of the city
of Mexico, and of the expedition of Christobal de Oli to the
Honduras; also how the vessel which conveyed this gold at the same
time carried secret letters to Spain, written by the royal
accountant Rodrigo de Albornoz, in which Cortes and the whole of the
veteran Conquistadores were calumniated in the vilest manner._
After Cortes had been appointed governor of New Spain, he considered
himself called upon to give his majesty a circumstantial account of what
was going on in the country; of the conversion of the Indians, the
rebuilding of the city of Tenochtitlan-Mexico, and of other important
circumstances; among which he mentioned, in the first place, the
expedition he had sent to Honduras, and he was very particular in
bringing under his majesty's notice the great expenses to which it had
put him. He then went on to state that he had conferred the chief
command of this armament on Christobal de Oli, who had allowed himself
to be bribed by Diego Velasquez to make common cause with him, and
renounce all further obedience to Cortes.
Our general then told his majesty that he was determined, if his majesty
should think proper, to despatch another officer to the Honduras, to
deprive Oli of the command, and cast him into chains; but if he
resisted, he would himself march against him. A severe punishment,
continued Cortes, ought to be inflicted in this instance, in order to
deter other officers who were sent out to subdue other provinces from
following Oli's example. He must therefore earnestly supplicate his
majesty's permission to march against this officer.
In these despatches Cortes preferred other much heavier charges against
Diego Velasquez, not only with regard to having bribed Oli to revolt,
but on account of the many conspiracies which he had caused to be formed
against his life during the expeditions to the rebellious provinces,
and, upon the whole, for having attempted to disturb the peace of the
country, which had obliged him to punish the more guilty ones with the
utmost rigour of the law. He then went on to say that he would have been
able to forward his majesty a much larger sum on this occasion than
30,000 pesos, if the revolutionary spirit which his enemies strove to
increase on all sides had not thrown obstacles in his way, and thereby
impeded his operations. Our general concluded by assuring his majesty he
would take every opportunity of sending as much gold as he possibly
could to Spain.
Cortes at the same time wrote to Diego de Ordas, to his father, and to
his relative, the licentiate Francisco Nunez, who was reporter to the
royal council, giving them a full account of the conduct of Rodrigo de
Albornoz; how this man secretly calumniated him in Mexico, because he
had omitted to give him as great a number of Indians as he had required,
and had refused to give him the daughter of the king of Tezcuco in
marriage, for whom he had contracted a better match with a gentleman of
quality; besides which he had been informed that this Albornoz had been
secretary to the bishop of Burgos in Flanders, and that he was a perfect
creature of this prelate. He constantly kept up a secret correspondence
with some one or other, even by means of figures, and Cortes thought it
most likely that he had on this occasion secretly written to his patron
the bishop, and slandered him in every possible manner; he therefore
cautioned his friends to be upon their guard, and narrowly to watch his
interests, for Cortes thought the bishop was at that time still
president of the council of the Indies.
In consequence of these apprehensions, Cortes sent duplicate copies of
all his despatches, so that if one set were seized at Seville by the
bishop's functionaries, the other might arrive safe in the proper hands.
The accountant Albornoz had indeed, as it proved, forwarded letters by
this same vessel to his majesty, to the bishop of Burgos, and to the
royal council of the Indies, in which he renewed all the late
accusations against our general, adding besides several new ones: among
others, he assured his majesty that Cortes levied vast quantities of
gold upon the caziques, under the pretext of forwarding it to his
majesty; thereby occasioning great discontent throughout the whole
country. He had assembled a considerable number of the distinguished
females of the country, in order to marry them to his Spanish soldiers;
but if honorable men requested any one of them in marriage, he was sure
to refuse them, and retained them rather as his own mistresses. The
caziques of the country in general looked upon him as a king; in fact,
they knew of no other king than Cortes, who took to himself an equal
fifth of the whole revenue of the country with the emperor, and he had
amassed immense treasures to himself. Yet he was so artful, that it was
impossible to divine his plans. He was building large fortresses, and it
might be his intention to declare his independence of the Spanish crown,
and turn traitor to his own country. It was, at all events, high time
for his majesty to adopt some decisive step to prevent this, and
despatch some personage of distinction to New Spain, in order to deprive
Cortes of the chief command, and of all sovereign power in the country.
Besides this, Albornoz slandered Cortes in various other ways, and the
bishop of Burgos determined to profit by it; and as Narvaez, Tapia, and
the agents of Diego Velasquez still continued their solicitations at
court, the bishop strenuously urged them to renew their accusations
against Cortes, and he strove to add further weight to their complaints
by the accounts which had just been received from Albornoz.
After his majesty had read these severe charges against our general, he
considered they were all true, and he said to Narvaez, who was spokesman
for the rest: "I am now determined that Cortes shall be punished! Though
he may send me a quantity of gold, yet the accusations that are brought
against him are becoming too frequent, and I love justice before all the
treasures he can procure me."
His majesty did not long delay to carry out his threats, for he
despatched orders to the admiral of St. Domingo to repair at the head of
600 men to Mexico, to seize Cortes' person, and if he found him guilty
to cut off his head without any further ceremony, and to punish all
those who assisted in the defeat of Narvaez. The emperor, in order to
spur the admiral on to fulfil his commands, even promised to appoint him
admiral of New Spain.
The admiral duly received these commands, but either from want of money
to fit out an armament sufficiently extensive for this purpose, or
whether he considered it a hazardous enterprise, he continually delayed
to act up to the emperor's commands. Certain it is, however, that his
friends cautioned him against Cortes' good fortune in arms, who, with a
handful of men, had defeated the large body of troops under Narvaez, and
they likewise assured him that he would not find Cortes or his
companions in arms guilty of anything wrong, but in every sense loyal
and faithful servants of his majesty. To all this was added, that it had
been observed to the emperor what a very distinguished appointment
admiral of New Spain would be, and that it was too great a reward to
bestow on any one for a mere expedition of this nature.
In the meantime while the admiral of St. Domingo was making preparations
for fitting out this armament, Cortes' agents, his father Martin Cortes
and father Melgarejo de Urrea, got information of all that was going
forward, and they no longer doubted from the letters they received from
Cortes himself, that the accountant Albornoz, or others of his enemies,
had been secretly plotting against him at court. These gentlemen,
therefore, called upon the duke of Bejar, to whom they gave a full
account of all the circumstances, and then laid before him Cortes' own
letters. When the duke saw how perilous the posture of affairs looked,
and how necessary it was to lend immediate assistance, he repaired to
his majesty without delay, accompanied by several of his distinguished
relatives, Martin Cortes, and father Melgarejo. After paying to his
majesty the deep respect which was due from them to their sovereign and
master, the duke humbly begged his majesty not to put any faith in what
the accountant Albornoz might say, who was the avowed enemy of Cortes,
and that his majesty would be pleased to countermand the orders he had
given to the admiral of St. Domingo, at least if less suspicious
witnesses than the accountant Albornoz did not come forward against
Cortes. As his majesty, continued the duke, was a monarch who loved
justice above all things, it was necessary to be doubly precautious in
taking proceedings against Cortes and his companions in arms, who had
rendered those services to their monarch, of which history could not
produce another example. He himself still continued to place implicit
confidence in the loyalty of Cortes towards his majesty, and in the same
way as he had previously offered to answer for Cortes with his head, he
was now quite ready to do the same again, and to stake the whole of his
possessions in the bargain. After the duke had thus declared himself to
the emperor, he gave his majesty an account of the letters which Cortes
had written to his own father, in which he had explained the reasons of
Albornoz's hatred to him. He then reminded his majesty of the vast
quantities of gold which Cortes had forwarded to Spain, and of the many
and great services he had altogether rendered to the crown, and brought
forth excellent arguments in justification of Cortes' conduct. His
majesty was so far convinced of the sound reasoning of the duke, that he
determined to despatch to New Spain a man of high rank, distinguished
talents, and of an unblemished character, there thoroughly to
investigate the matter on the spot itself.
The imperial court was at that time in Toledo, of which town a cavalier
and licentiate, named Luis Ponce de Leon, a cousin to the corregidor,
earl Don Martin de Cordoba, was then the vice-regidor. It was on this
gentleman that his majesty's choice fell, and Ponce de Leon accordingly
received the important commission to repair, without delay, to New
Spain, there to make the strictest inquiries into the accusations which
had been made against Cortes, and if he found him guilty to punish him
according to the utmost rigour of the law.
The licentiate Luis Ponce de Leon promised his majesty to employ his
utmost endeavours to bring the truth of the matter to light, and made
preparations for his journey to the New World; but he did not leave
Spain till two and a half years after, so that I shall subsequently
again have to recur to these circumstances. Nor did we receive any
information from Cortes' father of what had taken place in Spain until
after this time had elapsed. For the rest, Albornoz continued regularly
to despatch his slanders to the emperor, and even did not spare the
viceroy himself, Don Antonio de Mendoza, a man of exalted mind, worthy
of the most grateful remembrance, and whose name will be ever glorious.
However spotless the government of this gentleman might be, however
honest in his distribution of justice, yet this Albornoz presumed to
slander him to the emperor, and this merely because they were not upon
good terms with each other. Subsequently all the charges which Albornoz
had made against Cortes became known to this excellent viceroy, but he
contented himself by merely ordering Albornoz into his presence, and
laying before him the slanderous letters which he had written; he said
to him with his usual mildness and composure of countenance: "Since you
are so accustomed to write to his majesty, do not write falsehood, and
thereby wantonly precipitate others into ruin!" Albornoz, as may easily
be imagined, stood quite confounded and abashed.
I must now relate how Cortes, ignorant at that time of the secret
machinations of his enemies at the imperial court, sent out an armament
against Christobal de Oli.