The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. 2

1/25/22, 8:50 PM The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo written by himself, containing a true an…
his companions in arms, who had rendered those services to theirmonarch, of which history
could not produce another example. Hehimself 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 todo the same again,
and to stake the whole of his possessions in thebargain. 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 andgreat 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 thoroughlyto 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 thecorregidor, 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 theaccusations which had been made against
Cortes, and if he found himguilty to punish him according to the utmost rigour of the law.
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The licentiate Luis Ponce de Leon promised his majesty to employhis utmost endeavours to
bring the truth of the matter to light, and made preparations for his journey to the New
World; but he did notleave Spain till two and a half years after, so that I shall subsequently
again have to recur to these circumstances. Nor did we receive anyinformation 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 theviceroy himself, Don Antonio de Mendoza, a man of exalted mind,worthy of the
most grateful remembrance, and whose name will beever glorious. However spotless the
government of this gentlemanmight be, however honest in his distribution of justice, yet
this Albornozpresumed to slander him to the emperor, and this merely because theywere
not upon good terms with each other. Subsequently all the charges which Albornoz had
made against Cortes became known tothis excellent viceroy, but he contented himself by
merely orderingAlbornoz 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 towrite to his majesty, do not write falsehood,
and thereby wantonlyprecipitate 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 armamentagainst Christobal de Oli.
CHAPTER CLXXIII.
How Cortes sent out a captain, named Francisco de las Casas against
Christobal de Oli, on receiving intelligence that this officer had made
common cause with Diego Velasquez, and had renounced all further
obedience to him.
In order to render this chapter quite intelligible to the reader Imust recur to prior events. I
mentioned above that Cortes fitted out an armament for the Honduras and Higueras, the
command of which he intrusted to Christobal de Oli. It was not long before our general
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