Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/313

Rh Oajaca, was founded by this audiencia, but upon land wrested from Cortés; and with a view to injure him.

Where oppression had not produced the hatred of all save their own creatures, and those whose interest lay in courting their favor, the estrangement increased rapidly. In less than a twelvemonth the general discontent had reached a point which bordered on disloyalty.

Guzman was too sagacious long to be blind to the signs of storm fast coming from across the sea. And now letters from Spain plainly warned him of his approaching downfall. The brilliant scheme of further conquest planned by Cortés had been made apparent to the crafty lawyer who had just presided at his trial. It was no mere after-math for the gleaner's hand which awaited him first afield, but an abundant harvest, and to Guzman's ignoble nature, that Cortés was absent was no reason why another might not forestall him. Hoping, therefore, to regain by an offer of subjugated provinces the favor he had forfeited, and moved by a desire to take advantage of the errors into which his colleagues were sure to fall, he now proposed an expedition to Jalisco. On their part the oidores for the furtherance of their own ends desired his absence, and consented readily that the president should become its leader.

By generous gifts to captains in his confidence, chief among whom were Cristóbal de Oñate, Rodrigo de Albornoz, and Peralmindez Chirinos, of pueblos which of right belonged to Cortés and others, by