In futherance of the design, the devoted friends of Cortés had been gradually replaced by more pliable members. An able adviser and promoter of these machinations existed in Diego de Ocaña, who had lately arrived as royal notary, probably at the recommendation of Cobos, the powerful patron of his principals.[1]
Paz had given umbrage to the Franciscans by a neglect of religious duties and want of respect for the friars, a proceeding which was aggravated by his passionate and reckless nature. Salazar represented this to Father Valencia, the custodian, and agent for the Inquisition, and proposed that authority be given to seize and arraign him. The friar replied that the anger of the church had been propitiated by humble penitence, and that Paz stood absolved. This answer may have been dictated partly by a repugnance toward the applicant, whose every proposal seemed to cover some deep-laid plot, and whose reverence for the cloth was by no means conspicuous. Thus foiled, Salazar turned to another quarter.
After the treatment received from Paz, neither Estrada or Albornoz could be expected to harbor any good-will for him, and they were readily induced to join in the not altogether improper demand upon the mayordomo of Cortés to exhibit what treasures his master had sent to Spain, so that the royal fifth might be collected where still due; and further, since Cortés was evidently dead, to repay to the treasury the sixty thousand pesos de oro taken by him. Paz naturally objected, and his refusal was made to appear as contempt for the officials of the king, strongly indicative of treason. With loud words about the necessity for protecting the royal interests, Salazar and
- ↑ In Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 524-37, is printed a letter of this person, addressed probably to officials of the Casa de la Contratacion, with which he seems to have been connected. It is full of malicious charges and insinuations against Cortés and his party, and reveals him as a base hypocrite, as old in wickedness as in age, whereof he claimed over sixty years.
