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haughty tone, desiring them not to give themselves any further trouble:
he would fully inform his majesty of what had taken place; not, however,
according to their story, but conformably to truth; that, namely, we had
rebelled against Velasquez. This was followed by many other sharp
rebukes.

About this time also, Benito Martin, chaplain to Velasquez, arrived in
Valladolid, preferring heavy accusations against Cortes and all of us,
which set the archbishop more and more against us. Francisco de Montejo
had not the courage to step forward and defend our cause; but
Puertocarrero, as cousin to the earl of Medellin, durst presume the
more: he therefore took up the question, and most urgently begged of the
archbishop to give them a quiet hearing, and not to answer them so
harshly. They demanded nothing further of him than to forward the
presents to his majesty; they had a right to ask this, for we were
servants of the crown, and merited a remuneration, but not the remarks
he had allowed himself to make.

These words so greatly incensed the archbishop, that he ordered
Puertocarrero to be thrown into prison, on account of some previous
affair which had come to his ears; he having, namely, three years ago,
carried off a married woman, named Maria Rodriguez, of Medellin, and
taken her to India. Such was the first reception which our presents and
services met with in Spain, and nothing remained for our agents but to
hold their tongues for the present, and wait until a more favorable time
and opportunity should present itself. The archbishop now forwarded his
account to the emperor, who was then in Flanders, in which he extolled
the merits of his creature Velasquez to the very skies, saying
everything that was bad of Cortes and all of us; nor did he mention one
single word about our letters.

Upon this Puertocarrero, Montejo, Martin Cortes, the father of our
general, the licentiate Nuñez, who was reporter to the royal council,
and a near relation to Cortes, determined to despatch a courier of their
own to the emperor in Flanders. They fortunately possessed duplicates of
all our despatches and letters, as also a list of all the presents we
had destined for his majesty.

With these papers they likewise sent a separate letter to the emperor
with complaints against the archbishop and the whole of his doings with
Diego Velasquez. In this resolution they were backed by other cavaliers
who were at variance with the archbishop, who, upon the whole, had many
enemies on account of his haughty behaviour and the abuse he made of the
important offices he filled. And as the great services we had rendered
to God and his majesty, in whom we had alone reposed our trust, were
looked upon in a favorable light, it also happened that his majesty made
the strictest inquiries into the whole affair. His majesty was so highly
pleased with what we had done, that the dukes, marquisses, earls, and
other cavaliers, for days together spoke of nothing but Cortes, our
courageous behaviour, our conquests, and of the riches we had sent over.
It was owing to this as well as to the unfaithful and distorted account
which the archbishop had drawn up respecting these matters, and
particularly because he had not sent all the presents, but kept the
major part to himself, that he fell from that moment into his majesty's
displeasure. In the meantime the archbishop's agents in Flanders had
sent him information of all that had passed, which vexed him in no small
degree, and if previously he had blackened Cortes and all of us to his
majesty, he now boldly accused us of high treason. But the Lord very
soon bridled his rage; for two years after he received his dismissal,
and then in his turn experienced the curse of malice and contempt. We,
on the contrary, were looked upon as loyal men who had rendered services
to the crown, as shall be mentioned in the proper place. For the present
the emperor informed our agents, that he would himself shortly visit
Spain to investigate the matter more closely and reward us. Our agents,
therefore, awaited his majesty's arrival in Spain.

Before I proceed any further with my narrative, I must answer one
question, which several cavaliers have very justly put to me; namely,
how it was possible for me to relate these things, as I was not present
myself, but making the campaign in New Spain, when our agents were
despatched with the letters and presents, and met with this ill
treatment from the archbishop of Rosano? To which my answer is, that our
agents forwarded to us, the true conquistadores, verbatim all that had
passed between them and the latter, as also the favorable decision which
the emperor came to in our behalf; of which Cortes sent copies to all
the towns where we happened to be stationed, to show us how favorably
everything had terminated, and what a great enemy we had in the
archbishop. After this digression we will return to our quarters in New
Spain, and see what happened there in the meantime.

CHAPTER LVII.

 _What took place in our camp after the departure of our agents to
 his majesty with the gold and the letters; and the instance of
 severity which Cortes was compelled to give._

The suspicions of Velasquez's adherents were again aroused at the
departure of our agents, and the following occurrence took place a few
days after. A conspiracy was set on foot by Pedro Escudero, Juan
Cormeño, Gonzalo de Umbria, a pilot, the priest Juan Diaz, Bernardino de
Coria, (who afterwards became a citizen of Chiapa, and was father of a
certain Centeno,) and some seamen of Gibraleon. All these were
excessively embittered against Cortes; some because he had refused to
grant them the promised discharge to return to Cuba; others because they
had lost their share of the gold by the present which had been sent to
the emperor; and the seamen because they could not forget the lashes
which he had given them on the island of Cozumel for stealing the
flitches of bacon. They had determined to seize upon one of our small
vessels, to sail to Cuba, and acquaint the viceroy Diego Velasquez that
he had merely to send to the Havannah and the possessions of Montejo in
order to capture our agents with all the riches. We concluded from this
that the conspirators had been counselled by persons of authority among
our officers, since they knew that Montejo, notwithstanding the strict
injunctions which he had received to the contrary, had landed at his
commendary. The affair was already so far advanced that the conspirators
had sent on board the necessary provisions of cassave-bread, oil, dried
fish, water, and such like, and were about to set sail, when one of
them, Bernardino de Coria, began to repent, called upon Cortes at
midnight, and discovered the whole plot to him.

Cortes first of all made an accurate inquiry into the names and number
of the conspirators, as also into the reasons and the way they intended
carrying out the plot; he then ordered the sails, the compass, and the
rudder to be taken from the

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