8 
Introduction 
into a four-cornered fight in which the principal characters were Olid, 
who soon rebelled from Cortés; Francisco de las Casas, who was sent by 
Cortés to arrest Olid; Hernández de Córdoba and Hernando de Soto, 
lieutenants of Pedradas, who were operating from the new town of León 
as a base; and Gil González Dávila, discoverer in 1522 of Lake Nicaragua. 
The latter, upon his return to Panamá from his exploring expedition, 
escaped the snares laid for him by his rival Pedradas and made his way 
to Española where he organized an expedition and sailed for the east coast 
of the mainland, hoping to find a strait to the Nicaragua Lake country; 
failing so to do it was his intention to proceed thither overland. In the 
contest for supremacy that followed, Olid soon paid with his life for a 
short-lived triumph over Dávila and Las Casas; at the same time Dávila 
became a prisoner of Las Casas and by him was carried to Mexico City. 2 
Continued instability in Honduras finally resulted in Cortés’s going there 
in person. But his absence from Mexico was the occasion for disorders 
which forced him to abandon the Nicaragua campaign, and in 1526 to 
return to Mexico City without having come to blows with the lieutenants 
of Pedradas. 
Cortés returned to Mexico only to lose his power. In 1524 the king, 
as a means of keeping a check on Cortés, had despatched a corps of royal 
officials to New Spain, and it was these who during the absence of Cortés 
had stirred up trouble for him in Mexico. Complaints of the situation 
resulted in the king’s despatching Luis Ponce de León to conduct the 
residencia of Cortés. He arrived in Mexico only a few days after the 
return of Cortés from Honduras. With the institution of the residencia 
Cortés was automatically suspended as governor, although he continued 
for a while to hold the office of captain-general. The residencia of Cortés 
was suddenly interrupted by the death of Ponce two weeks after his 
arrival. Ponce’s political powers however devolved upon his successor, 
Marcos de Aguilar, and, after the latter’s death, upon the treasurer, 
Estrada, one of the royal officials who had arrived in New Spain in 1524. 
During their terms of office Cortés’s explorations in the South Sea were 
interfered with and he himself, after being deprived of his office as captain- 
general, was for a while exiled. 
In the meantime the presumptuous and jealous attitude of mainland 
conquistadores had had its effect on the king, and in 1525 sweeping terri¬ 
torial changes were made. In that year Pánuco and Vitoria Garayana, 
with Ñuño de Guzmán as governor, and Honduras, with Diego López de 
Salcedo as governor, were created independent jurisdictions. In 1526 
Francisco de Montejo was named governor of Yucatán and the island of 
Cozumel, and in 1527 Pedro de Alvarado became royal governor of the 
independent jurisdiction of Guatemala. At the same time, disappointed 
and provoked with the quarrels between the various contending factions 
at Mexico City, the king decided to establish the audiencia form of govern¬ 
ment in New Spain. According to a royal order issued on December 13, 
1527, New Spain and its provinces, Cabo de Honduras and Las Ygueras, 
Guatemala, Yucatán, Cozumel, Pánuco, La Florida, Rio de las Palmas, 
2 For further information concerning Gil Gonzalez Dávila see this volume, p. 35. 
