sons-in-law, and servants, as one person. But the royal court of audience explained this in a very different manner; for doctor Quesada, one of the auditors, being commissioned to make the enumeration, counted all the full-grown members of a family separately, reckoning the slaves and servants in a similar manner. In this way one house often contained from ten to fifteen subjects; instead of which, Cortes said that each house must only be considered as one individual, and maintained that his majesty fully intended, when he presented him with the several townships, that the number of inhabitants should be the number of houses. This matter involved him in lawsuits, and he became at variance both with the viceroy and the auditors, who then laid the matter before his majesty, but no decision was come to for several years, during which time the marquis continued to levy his tribute according to his own views.
Cortes, on his arrival in New Spain, staid but very few days at Mexico, and took up his permanent abode with his wife in the town of Quauhnahuac, which also belonged to his marquisate. He now occupied himself in fitting out the armament according to his agreement with the empress Isabella, of glorious memory, and with the council of the Indies, for discoveries in the South Sea. This armament he fitted out in the town of Teguantepec, which at that time formed part of his marquisate, and in the harbours of Zacatula and Acapulco.
How this expedition terminated I will relate in the following chapter, from which will be seen that Cortes' undertakings were no longer attended with success.