How Cortes receives a letter from the licentiate Zuazo out of the Havannah, and of its contents.
After this vessel had cast anchor, the captain, who was a person of quality, stepped on shore, announced his arrival to Cortes, and handed over to him a letter from the licentiate Zuazo. The grief which this letter occasioned our general was so excessive, that he was heard to sob aloud in his apartment, nor did he show himself again until the next morning, which was a Sunday. The night previous he confessed to father Juan, and had desired that the mass might be performed very early in the morning, and he then made the communion. After mass had been said, he ordered us all into his presence, and communicated to us the news he had received with regard to the affairs of New Spain.
To begin, we now learnt, that on the bare rumour of our having perished on the expedition to the Honduras, our property had been seized, and sold to the highest bidder; and our Indians distributed among people who were least deserving of them.
Upon this followed the intelligence which had been received from Diego de Ordas, and our general's father, Martin Cortes, respecting the slanderous letters which the accountant Albornoz had despatched to his majesty against Cortes; and the commands which the emperor had, in consequence, issued to the admiral of St. Domingo; and how the duke of Bejar had, for a time, dispersed the storm which was thickening over our general's head. Those two gentlemen at the same time mentioned that the captain Narvaez had been empowered by his majesty to subdue the countries lying on the river Palmas; that a certain Nuño de Guzman was appointed governor of the province of Panuco; and that Cortes' great enemy, the bishop of Burgos, was dead.