Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/241

Rh party had been killed some seven moons before at a city in the interior. He contented himself with accepting the reports, and returned to curry favor with the new ruler, who rewarded his devotion with the office of alcalde mayor

Salazar and Chirinos eagerly circulated his statements with the authoritative declaration that Cortés was indeed dead. To impress this upon the people solemn funeral honors were ordered by the local authorities to be held throughout the country. The sermons on the occasion were duly tempered in deference to the hostile feeling of the ruling faction. At Mexico a monument was erected in the parish church, and a sum of money was assigned from the estate of Cortés to pay for masses.

The evident effort to enforce the acceptance of this view, and by men of Salazar's intriguing nature, excited doubts among many. Such suspicions were regarded as mischievous to their projects, and the governors forbade their expression under heavy penalty. Juana Ruiz de Marcilla, wife of Valiente, secretary to Cortés, not only criticised the permission to marry granted to women whose husbands had left on the Honduras expedition, but loudly declared that the followers of Cortés were not such poltroons as