winsh.p] PLANS OF CORTES 369 



We can not be certain what the plans of Cortes were, nor can we 

 tell just how much he did to carry his schemes into execution, during 

 the years from 1537 to 1540. Shortly after the men whom Cortes had 

 established at Santa Cruz were recalled, a decree was issued, in the 

 name of the audiencia, to forbid the sending' of any expedition for 

 exploration or conquest from New Spain. Cortes declared that he had 

 at this time, September, 1538, nine good ships already built. He was 

 naturally unwilling to give up all hope of deriving any benefit from 

 his previous undertakings, as would be inevitable if Mendoza should 

 succeed in his projects for taking advantage of whatever good things 

 could be found toward the north. The danger must have seemed clear 

 so soon as he learned of the departure of Friar Marcos and the negro 

 on their journey toward the Seven Cities. There is no means of know- 

 ing whether Cortes had learned of the actual discovery of Cibola, when 

 he suddenly ordered Francisco de Ulloa to take three vessels and sail 

 up the coast toward the head of the Gulf of California. The friar may 

 have sent Indian messengers to the viceroy so soon as he heard the 

 native reports about the seven cities of Cibola, and it is possible that 

 the news of his approaching return may have reached New Spain before 

 the departure of Ulloa, which took place July S, 1539, from Acapulco. 1 

 It seems clear that this action was unexpected, and that it was a suc- 

 cessful anticipation of preventive measures. In the statement of his 

 grievances, Cortes declares that Mendoza not only threw every possible 

 obstacle in his way, seizing six or seven vessels which failed to get away 

 with Ulloa, but that even after Ulloa had gone, the viceroy sent a strong 

 force up the coast to x>revent the ships from entering any of the ports. 

 When stress of weather forced one of the ships to put into Guatulco, 

 the pilot and sailors were imprisoned and the viceroy persistently 

 refused to return the ship to its owner. About the same time, a mes- 

 senger who had been sent to Cortes from Santiago in Colima was seized 

 and tortured, in the hope of procuring from him information about the 

 plans of Cortes. 3 



After Friar Marcos came back from the north and filled the people in 

 New Spain with the desire of going to this new country, Cortes realized 

 that he could do nothing, even in the city which he had won for his 

 King and for Europe, to prevent the expedition which Mendoza was 

 already organizing. Early in 1540 — we know only that he was on his 

 way when he wrote to Oviedo from Habana 3 on February 5 — the con- 

 queror of Motecuhzoma's empire left Mexico for the last time, and went 

 to see what he could gain by a personal application at the court of His 

 Majesty the Emperor, Charles Y. 



'Ulloa's lielation is translated from Jtamusio in Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 397, ed. 1600. 



'Memorial quo did al Key el Marques del Valie, en Madrid, 25 do junio, 1540 : Printed in Doc. Ined. 

 Espafia. vol. iv, p. 209. Compare with this account that in H. H. .Bancroft's Mexico, vol. ii, p. 425. 

 Mr Bancroft is always a strong advocate of the cause of Cortes. 



3 Oviedo, Historia General, vol. iv, p. 19. 



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