The Enemies Of The Marquis Took A New Ground Of Attack, Alleging That He
Had Embezzled The Treasure Of Montezuma
And Guatimotzin, and was
answerable to the soldiers both for what he had appropriated to his own
use, and for
That which had been sent to Spain as a present to his majesty
and had been captured by Florin the French corsair. A long list of other
demands followed, on every one of which he was found liable, and his
property was sold under executions for the payment. At this time likewise,
Juan Suarez the brother of Donna Catalina, the first wife of Cortes,
charged him with her murder, offering to produce witnesses of the manner
of her death. Many of us the veteran conquerors, who were the friends of
Cortes, seeing the harsh manner in which he was treated, met by
appointment at the house of Garcia Holguin, under the license of an
alcalde or judge of police, where we entered into a resolution to renounce
all our claims to the treasure: But when the judges of the royal tribunal
heard of our proceedings, they ordered us all to be arrested for an
illegal meeting; and though we produced the license under which our
meeting was held, they again banished us five leagues from Mexico; but we
were allowed to return. A proclamation was issued about this time, that
all persons of Moorish descent, or from those who had been burned or
_sanbenited_[6] by the holy tribunal, as far as the fourth generation,
should quit New Spain within four months, under the penalty of losing half
their property.
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