the soldiers of Chirinos, to allow a horde of natives to cut them down. This contumacy must not be tolerated. Regardless of her sex, position, and wealth, she was ordered to be publicly lashed, as a warning to others.[1]
A certain portion of the estate of Cortés which could not well be secretly appropriated by the despoilers had been placed in the depository for the property of deceased persons. Salazar now ventured to have this sold at any price, and appropriated the proceeds to the payment of real or fictitious claims by himself and friends, also cancelling any of their indebtedness to the estate. So rapidly did the property disappear that when the royal treasurer made his claim for the suns which had served as pretext for the spoliation, there was not enough left to pay them.[2] When remonstrated with for this reckless management both of private and royal interests, he declared that the king did not know what orders were issued, nor the Council of the Indies what was observed. Besides, he had authority to seize Cortés, should he ever return, and might even hang him, a piece of bombast which tended to intimidate quite a number.[3]
- ↑ January 4, 1526. She received 100 lashes, according to her own formal complaint presented on the return of the husband. Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xxvi. 198-223. Cortés made amends by carrying her in procession on his horse, followed by all the cavaliers of the city, and by ever afterward giving her the noble title of Doña. Rhymster scoffingly alluded to this ennoblement. 'Dixeron por alla q͏̄ le auian sacado el don de las espaldas, como narizes del braco.' Gomara, Hist. Mex., 248. Bernal Diaz states that Estrada made this amend. He relates that Gonzalo Hernandez of Goazacoalco narrowly escaped hanging for expressing a doubt. On humbly declaring this a falsehood told to console a sorrowing widow he was rewarded, but made to leave the city. Hist. Verdad., 211. Cortés was later accused of having assumed the privilege to confer knighthood on several followers. Cortés, Residencia, i. 163-4; ii. 119.
- ↑ This is Estrada's formal declaration, yet the obsequious Albornoz intimates that the royal claims could be covered by the real estate yet remaining, valued at 200,000 castellanos. Carta, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 503. Cortés estimates his losses through the spoliation at 300,000 ducados. el, Servicios, in Cortés, Escritos Sueltos, 224-6. Salazar borrowed large sums, which were sent to a safe place in Spain, says Zumárraga. Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiii. 113. Certain gold deposited by Cortés in the coffers of the sanctuary was also seized. Herrera, ubi sup.
- ↑ 'Aunque Fernando Cortés fuese vivo, y bolviese, no le recibirian, sino que lo avian de ahorcar.' Torquemada, i. 593. Testimonio Mex., in Pacheco
