sympathy; his enemies were many and his friends few. According to Mota Padilla the latter took less interest in him than the former, who did not leave him in ignorance of the joy with which his imprisonment was generally regarded.
An appeal to the India Council[1] brought him a temporary relief. On the 4th of October, 1537, a royal cédula was issued, ordering him to surrender himself to the officers of the Casa de Contratacion at Seville,[2] by which body he would be transferred to the India Council. Hence, on the 30th of June, 1538, after an incarceration of nearly a year and three quarters, Guzman walked out of his prison and made preparations to return to Spain.
Neither the date of his departure nor that of his arrival in the peninsula is known. Indeed, the last years of his life were passed in obscurity and misery. The king, whose indignation was roused by the report from the audiencia,[3] would have inflicted extreme punishment[4] but for the influence of powerful friends.[5] But the monarch refused to see him, and assigned Torrejon de Velasco as his future abiding-place, where,
- ↑ Guzman, in this appeal, attempts an explanation in brief of his acts in Pánuco and Nueva Galicia. He charges Cortés with being the prompter of accusations made against him, and complains of unfairness in the manner of conducting the proceedings. Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiii. 450-5.
- ↑ In this auto de soltura instructions were also given that he should be provided with 4,000 pesos out of his property which had been sequestrated. Guzman, by this act, was released on his own recognizance. Ramirez, Proceso, 272-6,
- ↑ Guzman was himself the bearer of this report. The instructions to the audiencia were: 'É vos proseguireys la dicha residencia . . . para que la pueda traer consigo.' Id., 274.
- ↑ Zamacois assumes that the king had determined to have him executed on his arrival. Hist, Méj., iv. 631-2. But I find no authority to warrant such an assertion.
- ↑ 'Y como en la Corte no faltã poderosas intercessiones, no pago sus culpas como merecian.' Herrera, dec. vi. lib. i. cap. ix. This author, dec. vil. lib. ii. cap. x., intimates that Cortés interested himself in bringing Guzman's trial to a termination. But the expression used by Herrera is of doubtful interpretation. Mota Padilla, however, accepts it as evidence of a noble generosity extended by Cortés to his former foe, besides stating that he liberally aided him in his poverty. Beaumont also takes this view. Crón. Mich., iv. 98-9. Ramirez reasonably concludes that there is no ground for belief in such a story. Proceso, 232-3.
