Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/643

Rh Falces made much of Baltasar de Aguilar, with the view of obtaining the facts respecting the alleged conspiracy, and finally Aguilar told him that Cortés had no hand in it. Falces then wrote the crown that in his opinion there had been no conspiracy; the oidores, on the other hand, accused the viceroy of apathy and disloyalty, and thereafter they did all they could to annoy him.

It was a great monster of rebellion the oidores had crushed — so they would have the king believe, and so they wrote to all Spain about it. They went further, even accusing Falces of favoring the plot, and of having a plan of his own to separate New Spain from the crown of Castile, in support of which he had already thirty thousand men enrolled. Not satisfied with this, by collusion with the factor Ibarra, who had charge of forwarding the official correspondence, they succeeded in keeping back the viceroy's report, so that the tales of his enemies alone might reach the court. Yet more and more the people felt that the conduct of the oidores had been infamous, and the informers were held in contempt.