CORTEZ ACCUSED ORDERED TO SPAIN FOR TRIAL. 87 



guished in the annals of the colony and of Spain, but in 1568, he 

 was cruelly treated in the capital which had been won by the valor 

 and fidelity of his parents. 



From this digression in his Mexican career, Cortez was sud- 

 denly recalled by the news of disturbances in the capital, which he 

 reached after a tempestuous and dangerous voyage. His journey 

 from the coast to the valley was a continued scene of triumphs ; 

 and, from Tezcoco, in June, 1526, he made his stately entrance 

 into the city of Mexico amid brilliant cavalcades, decorated streets, 

 and lakes and canals covered with the fanciful skiffs of Indians. 



A month later, the joy of his rapturous reception was disturbed 

 by the announcement that the Spanish Court had sent a commis- 

 sioner to supercede him temporarily in the government. The 

 work of sapping his power and influence had long been carried on 

 at home ; and false reports, involving Cortez in extreme dis- 

 honesty not only to the subjects but to the crown of Spain itself, 

 at length infused suspicions into the sovereign's mind. The 

 Emperor resolved to search the matter fairly to its core, and, 

 accordingly, despatched Don Luis Ponce de Leon, a young, but 

 able nobleman to perform this delicate task, at the same time that 

 he wrote with his own hand to the conqueror, assuring him that his 

 sole design was not to distrust or deprive him of his honors, but to 

 afford him the opportunity of placing his integrity in a clear light 

 before the world. 



De Leon, and the delegate chosen on his death bed, died within 

 a few months, and were succeeded by Estrada, the royal treasurer, 

 who was hostile to Cortez, and whose malicious mismanagement 

 of the investigation soon convinced even the Spanish court that 

 it was unjust to leave so delicate and tangled a question in his 

 hands. Accordingly the affair was transferred from Estrada to a 

 commission styled the Audiencia Real de Espana, and Ccrtez was 

 commanded to hasten across the Atlantic in order to vindicate 

 himself from the aspersions before this august body, which sat in 

 the midst of his countrymen. 



Cortez resolved to go at once ; and, loyal to the last, rejected 

 all the offers that were made him to reassume the reins of power, 

 independently of Spain. He carried with him a number of natives, 

 together with specimens of all the natural and artificial products of 

 his viceroyalty ; nor did he forget a plentiful supply of gold, silver, 

 and jewels, with which he might maintain, in the eyes of his 

 luxurious countrymen, the state that was appropriate for one whose 



