enforcing the laws of protection. Accordingly, his Indians were taken away, his operations ordered discontinued, and a fine of forty thousand pesos imposed.[1]
Thwarted at every turn, Cortés gave way to despair. "I obeyed their order," he writes, "and ceased my preparations, so that neither by sea nor land can I do your Majesty any service," and in his heart doubted whether the exploration of the South Sea was a matter of any interest to the crown. Such is the version given by the marquis, but the audiencia tell a somewhat different tale, and inform the queen that Cortés paid no heed to the alguaciles whom they had sent to release the natives from their servitude, but defiantly ordered the carriers to continue their labors. Whereupon the audiencia instituted proceedings against him.[2] 'There was undoubtedly truth in what the oidores said.
Notwithstanding all the machinations of the evil ones, Cortés despatched from Acapulco in May 1532 two ships, the San Marcos and the San Miguel,[3] under Hurtado de Mendoza, the details of which expedition, as well as those of the subsequent maritime efforts of the marquis, may be found in my History of the North Mexican States.
With this beginning Cortés next determined to superintend in person the completion of his ships at Tehuantepec, and repairing thither hastened his prep-
- ↑ Cortés in his account to the king of this interruption explains that the natives employed were those of his own encomienda; that he paid them for their labor, and that the ordinance prohibiting the employment of Indian carriers had been violated with impunity by others. Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xii. 548; Col. Doc. Inéd., iv. 175-7. Alonso de Zurita, writing in the last half of the 16th century, 'oydor que fue de la real audiencia,' represents that the construction of fleets by Cortés cost the lives of thousands of Indians. Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., ii. 113-14.
- ↑ Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série ii. tom. v. 203-4.
- ↑ Pacheco and Cárdenas, xii. 541. These vessels were built under contract by Juan Rodriguez de Villafuerte, for 1,500 castellanos, to be delivered before Christmas, 1531. Cortés, in Col. Doc. Inéd., ii. 416-19. The ill-fated vessels were both lost, and nearly every one of the crews, weakened by sickness and famine, massacred by the natives. Cortés attributed the failure of this expedition to the enmity of Guzman, who prevented his captains landing for supplies and repairs. Real Provision, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., ii. 35.
