The enemies of Cortes and Sandoval, on this occasion, again began to whisper their calumnies abroad, and asserted that they had poisoned Leon in the same manner as they had Garay. Loudest among these slanderers was father Thomas Ortiz, but the latter himself, with several brothers of his order, died of the same infectious disease a few months after. It appears that the vessel which brought Leon from Spain was infected with a kind of pestilential fever; for of above one hundred persons who were on board, many had died during the passage, and a still greater number perished of the same disorder soon after their arrival in Medellin. Most of the monks, likewise, fell victims to this disorder; and it was even said that the disease had spread to Mexico.
CHAPTER CXCIII.
How after the death of Ponce de Leon, Marcos de Aguilar assumes the government; the disputes which arose in consequence, and of other matters.
Those of the Conquistadores who were ill inclined towards Cortes, desired that the commission of inquiry might be continued, notwithstanding that Ponce de Leon had died, but our general declared that this could not take place according to the wording of Leon's last will; yet, if Aguilar was willing to proceed with the inquiry, he had no objections.
But now the town-council of Mexico threw in their objections, and maintained that Leon was not empowered to leave Marcos de Aguilar sole governor. An important office of this kind required a very different kind of person to Aguilar, who, besides being far advanced in years, was quite infirm, eaten up with sores, and a man of no authority. (I must say his outward appearance was anything but prepossessing, and bespoke deficiency in every way; besides which he knew nothing of the country nor of the persons who had proved themselves meritorious.) In short, the town-council declared him to be a man for whom no one entertained any respect, and it was necessary for a person who held the staff of justice to be looked up to. They were therefore of opinion that the only thing he could do would be to share the government equally with Cortes until his majesty's further pleasure was known.
Marcos de Aguilar, however, was determined to act strictly up to the contents of Leon's last will, by which he was appointed sole governor, and added, that he would not submit, unless, in direct violation of his majesty's commands, they chose to appoint another governor.
The procuradores of all the towns of New Spain urged Cortes, in every possible manner, to take the government into his own hands; and they assured him they would persuade Aguilar, by fair words, to agree to it, particularly as he was always suffering from ill health, and it was perfectly evident the service of God and the true interests of his majesty must suffer in his hands. But whatever they might say to Cortes, he would not enter into their schemes, and always repeated that old Aguilar must govern alone.
Aguilar, indeed, was in a rapid decline, and so feeble, that to keep him alive he was obliged to be suckled by a Spanish woman; besides that, he drank quantities of goats' milk. He likewise about this time lost one of his sons, whom he had brought with him, of the same pestilential fever which hurried Ponce de Leon into the grave.
I must now go back in my history a little, and relate what befel the captain Luis Marin, who, with the troops under his command, had remained behind in Naco, where he was waiting to hear from Sandoval whether Cortes had embarked for Mexico or not; but we never received any tidings from him, as Saavedra, from sheer malice, had omitted to forward us the letters of Sandoval and Cortes, in which they sent us information of their intended departure for Mexico, with orders for us to march thither overland. As we had thus waited in vain for a length of time for some tidings from Truxillo, Luis Marin determined, with our unanimous consent, to despatch a few horse thither, to ascertain how matters stood. There were ten of us that left Naco on this occasion, under the command of Francisco Marmolejo. We had already fought our way through various hostile tribes up to Olancho, which at present is called Guayape, abounding in lucrative gold mines, when we happened to meet two Spanish invalids and a negro, who assured us that Cortes had set sail several days ago for Mexico, with Sandoval and all the other Conquistadores who were with him. They then added, that he had been induced to embark from the universal solicitations of the citizens of Mexico, who had despatched one of the Franciscan monks to Truxillo, to hasten his departure. Saavedra had been left behind in this latter town as commandant, and was further to subdue the surrounding country.