man had neither sent nor could send an expedition, since he had no vessel of his own, and the Concepcion was stranded. At the opening of his protest he significantly calls attention to the fact that he was acting in conformity with his Majesty's commands and with the contract which he held.
The action taken by the audiencia after this protest was no more favorable to the efforts of the marquis than had been its previous course. The truth is that the oidores were secretly supported by the throne, a course at once cowardly and base on the part of Charles, who through very shame could not cast off one to whom he owed so much, and yet he feared to permit him to prosper. Gonzalo Ruiz was commissioned on the 22d of August to proceed to Nueva Galicia and investigate the matter; but nothing was done in favor of Cortés, whose repeated appeals to the audiencia were responded to with such lukewarmness that he rightly concluded that their neglect was intentional.[1] He therefore determined to take matters into his own hands, despatch a third expedition, and command it in person. At the same time he would call to account his adversary of New Galicia. About midwinter 1534-5 he despatched from Tehuantepec for Chiametla three vessels, the San Lázaro, the Santa Agueda, and the Santo Tomás, thoroughly equipped and well supplied with stores. About the same time he started by land for Chiametla at the head of a considerable force.[2] But Guzman, too weak to contend with him, avoided hostilities, and, during the time Cortés was in Jalisco, preferred to be absent, occupying himself with the suppression of an Indian outbreak in the valley of Banderas.[3] The land and sea expeditions were thus
- ↑ Comision, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xii., 429-39.
- ↑ A witness in a subsequent lawsuit testified that there were 400 Spaniards and 300 negroes. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 233-4, says the expedition consisted of 320 persons, including 34 married couples.
- ↑ Guzman, writing in June 1535, claims that the bad policy of Cortés while passing through Jalisco was the cause of these Indian troubles, Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiii. 414-17.
