l
authority to take possession of her husband's property wherever he might
find it, for she imagined he had taken considerable property with him to
New Spain. This man was secretly advised by the auditors to bring
actions against all those of the Conquistadores who had accompanied
Cortes on the expedition against Narvaez, injured his person, burnt his
property, and killed so many of his men. Zavallos immediately lent a
willing ear to this, and forthwith commenced an action of
indemnification against the Conquistadores, who all happened at that
time to be staying in the metropolis. There were altogether 250 of us,
and the whole were condemned in the sum of a certain number of pesos,
and banished to the distance of twenty miles from Mexico. But this
sentence of banishment was instantly withdrawn, and several of us were
not even asked for the fine in which we had been condemned, for it was
very small. But this was not all, for now other enemies of Cortes began
to show themselves, and accused him of having kept to himself a quantity
of the gold, silver and jewels taken at the conquest of the city of
Mexico; that he had even concealed the treasure of Quauhtemoctzin, and
merely given the Conquistadores eighty pesos a piece; that he had only
sent a very small portion of this treasure to his majesty, and that in
such a manner as if the present had come from him alone. Though these
complainants very well knew that the present which Cortes sent on that
occasion to Spain fell into the hands of the French freebooter, Jean
Florin, yet they not only demanded that Cortes should repay the money
captured by this corsair, but also the other treasures which he had
secretly kept to himself.

Various other accusations were brought against Cortes, and in every case
judgment was given in favour of the complainants, so that his
possessions were sold in payment of all demands. The auditors even went
so far as to contrive that Cortes' own brother-in-law, Juan Suarez,
should accuse Cortes, in open court, of the murder of his late wife,
Dona Catalina Suarez, which he sought to prove by witnesses.

With regard to the demands against Cortes respecting the prize-money of
Mexico and the treasure of Quauhtemoctzin, we, the friends of Cortes,
after obtaining leave of the alcaldes, assembled in the house of Garcia
Holguin, and signed our names to a paper, in which we declared that we
would not accept of any share of the fines in which Cortes had been
c