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420 New Spain, and a fifth was completed later. The fleet was almost ready to sail, when the oidores of the first audiencia interfered. They seized and sent prisoner to Mexico the officer in charge, dismissed the Indians employed, and suspended work. The ship tackle and stores were stolen, and the vessels were left to rot. Or. the return of Cortés they were almost ruined, and the loss which he sustained amounted to more than twenty thousand castellanos.

Nor did Cortés meet with that coöperation from the second audiencia which he had expected. Not disheartened by the discouraging result of his former attempt, shortly after his return to New Spain he hastened to carry out his contracts with the king. He began the construction of four new vessels, two at Tehuantepec and two at Acapulco, and succeeded in getting them launched about the beginning of 1532. But the audiencia, which at first had encouraged him to proceed with the execution of his schemes, now, to the marquis' cost, and notwithstanding a decree forbidding its interference, caused him much trouble. Acapulco was inaccessible to carts and pack animals, and Cortés found it necessary to employ native carriers to transport tackle and stores for his ships. The opening policy of the new audiencia with respect to the treatment of the natives was that of strictly