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222 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.

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. 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.