f Guatimala to Christianity.

With all this, Cortes' mind was never at ease, and he constantly
apprehended that the bishop of Burgos and the agents of Diego Velasquez
would renew their complaints against him to his majesty, or injure him
in some way or other; and as his father, with Diego de Ordas, sent him
the most favorable account of their progress in settling the
preliminaries of marriage between himself and Dona Juana de Zunniga, he
considered it would be great policy on his part to send all the gold he
could possibly collect to Spain, partly to convince the duke of Bejar of
the riches he possessed, and of the magnitude of his conquests, but
particularly to ingratiate himself further with his majesty to obtain
additional honours and favours from him.

CHAPTER CLXXII.

_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