armament under Narvaez for New Spain without his permission, and in opposition to the commands of the royal court of audience at St. Domingo, and of the Hieronymite brotherhood; also because he had refused to obey the orders of the auditor Vasquez de Aillon, and had even had the audacity to throw him into prison, though he had been expressly despatched to Cuba by order of the royal court of audience to forbid the armament leaving this island.
When the bishop of Burgos was informed of the decision to which his holiness and his majesty had come, he fell ill from excessive vexation, quitted the court and retired to his country seat at Toro. His brother, Don Antonio de Fonseca,39 lord of Coca and Alaexos, tried all in his power to get him reinstated into his late office, but all his endeavours proved fruitless with the emperor.
Thus, all in a moment, everything terminated favorably for Cortes, but the instability of good fortune soon began to show itself, for now Narvaez, Christobal de Tapia, and the soldier Cardenas brought heavy accusations against him. To all of which was added the charges preferred against our general by the pilot Umbria, whom Cortes had sentenced to have his legs cut off on the occasion when Cermenno and Escudero were hung for a conspiracy they had formed against his life.