de Cuenca and Francisco de Medina
perished, with all their men. The accounts which Ordas could gather here
went to confirm all that had been rumoured respecting our total
destruction. He therefore returned to New Spain, and wrote word to the
factor, without going on shore, that there was now no doubt of Cortes
having perished, with all who accompanied him on the expedition. After
despatching this letter to Mexico, he immediately set sail for Cuba, in
order to purchase cows and horses there.

The factor, on receiving this intelligence from de Ordas, made it known
to every one, and subsequently the whole of Cortes' old soldiers and
friends put on mourning, and even a tomb was erected to his memory in
the chief church of Mexico. The factor then, under sound of trumpet and
drum, had himself proclaimed governor and captain-general of New Spain.
His next step was, to order the wives of those who were supposed to have
perished with Cortes to pray for their late husbands' souls, and to form
new marriages, all of which was likewise made known in Guacasualco and
other townships. He even went so far as to order the wife of a certain
Alonso Valiente to be publicly scourged for a witch through the streets
of Mexico, for having declared her determination not to marry again, as
she was sure that Cortes and the whole of us were still alive, and that
we should shortly make our appearance, for we, the veteran
Conquistadores, said she, were a very different kind of soldiers to
those who marched out under the veedor to Coatlan, against whom the
Indians made war, not they against the Indians. The veedor was soon
surrounded by a vile set of flatterers, who supported him in all his
measures; and one Spaniard, whom we had always considered to be a man of
honour, but whose name I will refrain from mentioning, had the
shamelessness to assure the factor, in presence of several persons, that
as he was one night passing over the Tlatelulco, near the church of
Santiago, where the great temple of Huitzilopochtli once stood, he had
seen the souls of Cortes, Dona Marina, and Sandoval burning in livid
flames in a courtyard near this church. This had frightened him to such
a degree, he added, that he fell ill in consequence.

There was also another Spaniard, whose name I will suppress, because we
had always greatly esteemed him, who related a similar circumstance,
telling the factor that evil spirits were seen flitting up and down the
great squares of T