one who had performed such services, achieving vast conquests without cost to the crown.[1]
After all this had been arranged,[2] the letters came from the royal officials, so full of abuse and insinuations against Cortés that the king began to doubt what course to pursue. The intimation that immense treasures had been collected by the conquerors, confirmed by the liberal offers of Ribera, indicated that equal or larger contributions might be obtained without this agreement. It was, besides, dangerous to confer more authority upon a man whose ambition leaned toward an empire of his own, over a pliant and numerous people, aided by a host of devoted soldiers. The charges of the Velazquez party had proved exaggerated, yet the suspicions scattered by them kept smouldering, now to burst into flame on the arrival of confirmatory statements from all of the four royal officials. About this time also a quarrel arose between Ribera and the father of Cortés concerning some funds which the former had failed to deliver, and finding his master falling in favor the secretary thought it best to secure himself by keeping the money and currying favor with the opposition by offering damaging testimony.[3]
Under such circumstances it is not surprising that the king took alarm; he might lose great treasures
- ↑ The agents received a proportionately greater reward, Melgarejo being appointed royal preacher with permission to call himself of the Council of the Indies, and Ribera was made royal treasurer of the South Sea, 'por continuo, de su casa,' with 50,000 maravedís in pay, and permission to wear an open helmet in his coat of arms. Herrera, dec. tii. lib. vii. cap. iv.
- ↑ 'Se les dieron los despachos dependientes desta capitulacion,' etc. Id.
- ↑ While engaged in defaming Cortés he died from overeating, says Gomara. 'Comio vna noche vn torrezno en cadahalso, y murio dello.' Hist. Mex., 275. Bernal Diaz gives him a bad character. Hist. Verdad., 190-1. His premature death is doubtful, for the Libro de Cabildo, March 1, 1527, mentions Juan de Ribera as regidor of Mexico, evidently the same man.
right-hand division a double-headed black eagle on a white field, the arms of the empire; in the lower division a golden lion on a red field, significant of Cortés' deeds. In the upper left division, three golden crowns in pyramidal position on a black field, denoting his subjugation of three sovereigns in the lower division a representation of Tenochtitlan city. The yellow border displayed seven heads of leading chiefs linked by a chain with a padlock. A plumed closed helmet surmounted the shield. Real Cédula, in Col. Doc. Inéd., iii, 196-204.
