The high words which arose between the auditor Vazquez de Aillon and Narvaez, who orders him to be seized and sent back prisoner to Spain.
The auditor Aillon, as I have before mentioned, was most favorably inclined towards Cortes, and had purposely come to New Spain with instructions from the royal court of audience at St. Domingo and the Hieronymite brothers, who were aware of the great and important services we had rendered to God and the emperor, to promote our cause in every possible manner. After he had carefully perused Cortes' letters, and received the bars of gold, he no longer made a secret of his sentiments, but spoke without any reserve of the scandalous piece of injustice which had been perpetrated in fitting out this armament against such well-deserving men as we had proved ourselves, and was so eloquent in the praise of Cortes and his companions in arms, that the feeling in our favour became almost universal in Narvaez's head-quarters. The meanness of the latter's disposition served to increase this feeling, who retained all the presents sent by Motecusuma entirely to himself, without offering any part of them either to his officers or men. Indeed, he even said haughtily to his steward, "Mind that not the smallest matter is taken away from these things; every article has been carefully noted down." When this conduct was compared with that pursued by Cortes towards his soldiers, his men almost broke out into open insurrection.
Narvaez looked upon the auditor as the cause of all this bad feeling, and brought it so sensibly home to him that no one durst give him or his adherents the smallest morsel of the provisions which were sent by Motecusuma. This circumstance of itself caused a good deal of quarrelling among the troops; but when Narvaez's principal adherents, Salvatierra, whom I have above mentioned, and a certain Juan Bono, from Biscay, with a certain Gamarra, continually added fuel to the flame, he, relying on the mighty support of Fonseca, lost sight of every consideration, imprisoned the auditor, with his secretary and all his attendants, threw them on board a vessel, and so sent them off either to Spain or Cuba.
His behaviour towards Gonzalo de Oblanco, a cavalier and a scholar, was even more severe,—when the latter boldly told him to his face that Cortes had proved himself a faithful servant to the emperor, that we all had merited a reward from his majesty, and that it was scandalous to brand us with the name of traitors, and great presumption to imprison one of his majesty's auditors, Narvaez instantly threw him into chains, and Oblanco, who was a high-spirited soul, was so hurt at this ill-treatment, that he died within the space of four days. Two other soldiers were thrown into prison merely because they had spoken well of Cortes; one of whom was Sancho de Barahona, who afterwards settled down in Guatimala.
But to return to the auditor, who was to be sent prisoner to Spain; he was scarcely at sea, when he prevailed upon the captain and pilot, by means of good words, or threats to hang them immediately on their arrival in Spain, instead of paying them for the passage, to steer for St. Domingo.
As soon as the auditor had arrived at St. Domingo, and the royal court of audience and viceroys there were informed of Narvaez's scandalous and presumptuous ill treatment of the licentiate Lucas Vazquez, they considered it in the light of an insult offered to themselves, and made heavy complaints to the supreme council of Castile. But as the bishop Fonseca was still president of that council, and, during his majesty's continued absence in Flanders, ruled affairs as he thought proper, no justice could be expected from Spain. The bishop had even the shamelessness openly to express his joy when he supposed that Narvaez had already subdued us. The bishop, himself, however, suffered from the consequences which ensued from this affair; for, when our agents in Flanders received intelligence of Velasquez's expedition, and found that it had been fitted out without his majesty's permission, and merely by authority of Fonseca, they drew great advantage from this illegal mode of proceeding during the investigation which was shortly after set on foot respecting Cortes and all of us.—The harsh treatment which the auditor Lucas Vazquez was subjected to had a bad effect upon Narvaez's troops, and many of his friends and relatives whom he regarded with a mistrustful eye, went over to Sandoval, lest they should experience similar treatment with Oblanco. Sandoval, as may well be imagined, received them with open arms, and learnt from them all that had passed in Narvaez's quarters; likewise that he contemplated sending men to Vera Cruz to take him prisoner.
CHAPTER CXIV.
Narvaez marches, with the whole of his troops, to Sempoalla; his proceedings there; and how we in Mexico determine to march against him.
After Narvaez had sent off the auditor prisoner, he marched with the whole of his men, the baggage, and the cannon, to Sempoalla, and quartered himself in that town, which was then very thickly populated. His first act there was to take away from the fat cazique, as we termed him, the cotton stuffs, gold trinkets, and other fancy articles he possessed. He likewise took the Indian females forcibly away who had been presented to us by the caziques of Sempoalla, and whom we had left behind with their parents and relatives, as they were daughters of distinguished personages, and much too delicate to bear the fatigues of a campaign.