The Indians of this province excel as archers, and fly their arrows with so much strength that they will pierce a jacket doubly quilted with cotton.
After this momentary attack upon us, the Indians drew back to the marshes, and we remained two whole days in this place, during which time we despatched several messages to them; but as they obstinately refused to submit, and were securely posted between the swamps, where our horse could not manœuvre, nor would it have been an easy matter for the foot to have got at them, and as we ourselves were quite tired of roving about, we unanimously determined to march back to Guacasualco. We took our route through the townships of Guimango, Nacaxu, Xuica, Teotitan-Copilco, and several others, all belonging to the province of Chontalpa. We then crossed the rivers Ayagualulco, and Tonala, and we arrived safely in Guacasualco, when the owners of those horses which had been killed in this campaign were reimbursed for their loss from the gold collected in Chiapa and Chamula.
In the meantime Alonso de Grado reached Mexico, and presented himself to Cortes; who, when he learnt the real state of the case, grew excessively angry with this officer, and said to him, "It appears thus, Señor Alonso, that you cannot live in peace with any one! I must earnestly advise you to alter your bad disposition; if not, I will give you 3000 pesos, and send you off to Cuba. I cannot suffer you to go on in this manner any longer!" Alonso de Grado then humbly begged his pardon, and expressed his sorrow for what had happened, so that our general, and even Luis Marin, became reconciled to him shortly after.
I must now conclude this chapter, in order to acquaint the reader with what was going on at the imperial court in Spain respecting the bishop of Burgos.
CHAPTER CLXVII.
How our agents in Spain brought certain accusations against the bishop of Burgos, and what further happened.
The reader must have seen, from what I have stated in former chapters, that the bishop of Burgos and archbishop of Rosano, Don Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, favoured Diego Velasquez in every way, and that, on the other hand, he took every opportunity of thwarting the designs of Cortes and of all of us. But now, by divine permission of the Lord Jesus Christ, the holy father Adrian[35] was elected Pope in the year 1521; and as this happened at the time he was governor of Spain, our agents repaired to the town of Vittoria, where he was then residing, to kiss his holiness's feet. There arrived with them, at the same time, in Vittoria, a German gentleman of distinction named La Chau,[36] who had been despatched thither by the emperor to congratulate the new Pope. As this gentleman had heard a great deal of the heroic deeds of Cortes and his troops, how we had conquered New Spain, what great and memorable services we had rendered to his majesty, and of the many thousands of Indians we had converted to Christianity, he supplicated his holiness to investigate the matter of dispute between Cortes and the bishop of Burgos. To this his holiness consented, and he immediately took the matter in hand, which he did the more earnestly, as the complaints of our agents had emboldened several other men of distinction to prefer charges of injustice and oppression against the bishop. This bishop was, upon the whole, detested, as, in his capacity of president of the council of the Indies, during the emperor's absence in Flanders, he had governed in the most arbitrary manner; notwithstanding this, it was a matter of no small difficulty for our agents to reject him as the judge in our own affairs.
Francisco de Montejo, Diego de Ordas, the licentiate Francisco Nuñez, and Martin Cortes, were purposely staying at Valladolid to wait an opportunity of preferring their charges against the bishop. In this place they found great protection and favour from several distinguished cavaliers and grandees of the court, particularly from the duke of Bejar, so that our agents were emboldened to maintain with great firmness that they could not acknowledge the bishop as judge in their affairs, for which they gave the following reasons:
Firstly. Diego Velasquez had given the bishop of Burgos a very lucrative commendary in Cuba, the gold mines of which the former worked with the inhabitants of the island, and sent the produce to Spain for the bishop. Not one of the townships of that island had Velasquez set apart for the emperor, although he was so greatly indebted to him.