Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/106

86 leading grandees, and the German duke of Nassau, whose representations assisted in convincing Cardinal Adrian of the injustice done. Fonseca was thereupon ordered not to meddle in the affairs of Cortés, and the evidence of his conduct was forwarded to the monarch.

Adrian had no time to do much more, for he was elected successor to Leo X., and was obliged to go to Italy in the spring of 1522. The emperor returned from Germany shortly after, however, and Tapia appearing to support the complaints of the adherents of Velazquez, he resolved to investigate the charges both against Fonseca and Cortés; summoning to this effect a special commission which included such men as the grand chancellor.

The plaintiff opened with the charge that Cortés had appropriated to his own ends a fleet fitted out at great expense by Velazquez, in virtue of royal authority, to continue the exploration of the countries already discovered by him. Velazquez had consequently been obliged to spend the remainder of his fortune in efforts to recover his own, notably in the equipment of a second large fleet under Narvaez. Regardless of the lives of his Majesty's subjects, and of his sacred decrees, Cortés had attacked the expedition, killed a number, imprisoned others, and bribed or intimidated the rest into submission, besides tearing