Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/77

Rh conducted with characteristic brutality. He left the city at the head of five hundred Spaniards, and over two thousand Indians, between auxiliaries and camp servants, before Cortes returned from Spain.

The powers conceded to Cortes as Captain-General, and for the continuation of his explorations and discoveries, were so large, and so ill-defined, that they could hardly fail to conflict with those of the royal audiencia, and this came to pass immediately after his arrival at Vera Cruz on July 15, 1530. The Marques, as he was henceforward called, was accompanied by his wife and his mother, and was received upon landing with jubilation by Spaniards and Indians alike, who flocked in thousands from all parts to welcome him, and to present their grievances for his adjustment. The new audiencia was not yet constituted, and the auditors, Matienzo and Delgadillo, sent strict orders to Vera Cruz that the people assembled there in Cortes's honour disperse to their homes, while to Cortes himself, who had meanwhile marched amid ovations by the way of Tlascala to Texcoco, they delivered a prohibition to enter the capital. This order was in conformity with the instructions given him before leaving Spain, so he was obliged to respect it, and to establish himself at Texcoco until the arrival of the new audiencia which took place in December of the same year, 1530. At the outset everything went well, and the new auditors rendered justice in several of Cortes's claims, and took counsel with him concerning affairs and the measures to be adopted. This promising state of things, however, was of brief duration, and, in their letter of February 22, 1531, to the Emperor, they made complaints of his pretensions, and mentioned among other things that the bishop in reading the prayers for the King and royal family added after the words cum prole regia "et duce exercitus nostri," and that they had corrected him for so doing.