of which, however, were most barefaced and scandalous lies. To all this was added, that about the same time the accountant Albornoz, who was never well inclined towards Cortes, went to Spain to injure him in every possible manner. After his majesty and the council of the Indies had read all the letters and despatches, which seemed to vie with each other in their complaints against Cortes, and were moreover confirmed by Albornoz, all the former accusations respecting his treatment of Narvaez, Tapia, and his conduct towards his first wife, Doña Catalina Suarez la Marcaida, were harrowed up again, and actually gained credit in all their distortion. The emperor, therefore, came to the determination to appoint Estrada sole governor of New Spain; he confirmed all his previous acts and deeds, gave him power to distribute the commendaries according to the best of his judgment, and ordered that the factor and veedor should again be set at liberty and reinstated in all their former possessions.
A vessel was immediately despatched from Spain with these his majesty's commands, which soon arrived in Mexico; but this was not all, for his majesty also ordered the comendador-mayor of the order of Alcantara, Don Pedro de la Cueva, to equip three hundred soldiers at Cortes' expense, to repair with these to New Spain, there to make inquiries into the complaints which had been made against Cortes, with full power, if he should find them founded in truth, to cut off his head. In the same way the comendador was to punish all those who had acted against the real interests of the crown; he was to take away all the townships in possession of Cortes, and to distribute them among the veteran Conquistadores. His majesty likewise ordered that a royal court of audience should be appointed at Mexico, as a supreme court of justice.
The departure of the comendador-mayor, however, was so long deferred, that at last it was given up altogether; for it met with great opposition at court, and the comendador was either not supplied with so large a sum of money as he had asked for, or perhaps the duke of Bejar had again espoused Cortes' cause, as on former occasions.