Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/621

Rh difficulty or danger save from scurvy, scanty stores, and a little later, from corsairs. Each year after this the rich products of the east were received in Mexico in one or more ships, but there is no record extant, for the government loved to shroud her commerce in mystery, which course was, indeed, to some extent justified, as subsequent events made apparent. Expeditions on private account for the discovery of new countries, whether by land or sea, were now forbidden by royal cédula of July 13, 1573, unless by express permission of the sovereign.