was dependent on Mexico, Guzman immediately ordered him to be hanged.  He put many other Spaniards to death, merely to make himself feared; and set the authority of the governor of Mexico at defiance.  Some of the enemies of Cortes persuaded Estrada to represent to the court of Spain, that he had been compelled by the influence of Cortes to associate Sandoval with himself in the government, contrary to his inclination, and to the detriment of his majesties service.  By the same conveyance, a string of malevolent falsehoods were transmitted against the general; as that he had poisoned Garay, De Leon, and Aguilar; that he had endeavoured to administer arsenic in cheese-cakes to a great number of people at a feast; that he was plotting the deaths of the veedor and factor Chirinos and Salazar, then in jail; and that he had procured the death of his wife, Donna Catalina.  All these lies were supported by the industry of the contador Albornos, then in Spain:  And, in consequence of these gross falsehoods, Cortes was partly judged unheard; as orders were sent to release Salazar and Chirinos; and Pedro de la Cueva, commendator-major of Alcantara, was ordered to go out to Mexico with an escort of three hundred soldiers at the expence of Cortes, with authority to put Cortes to death if his guilt were proved, and to distribute his property among the veteran conquerors of Mexico.  This was to have been done, however, under the authority of a court of royal audience, which was to be sent out to Mexico; but all ended in nothing; as neither De la Cueva nor the court of royal audience made their appearance.

Estrada was greatly elated by the countenance he received at court, which he attributed to his being considered as a natural son of the Catholic king.  He disposed of governments at his pleasure, and carried every thing with a high hand.  At this time he sent his relation Mazoriejos to inquire into the conduct of Don Juan Enriquez de Guzman in Chiapa, who is said to have made more plunder there than was proper.  He sent also a force against the Zapotecas and Mixtecas, under the command of one De Barrios, said to be a brave soldier who had served in Italy.  I do not mean De Barrios of Seville, the brother-in-law of Cortes.  This officer marched with a hundred men against the Zapotecas; but they surprised him, one night, and slew himself and seven of his soldiers.  Such was the difference between these raw half formed soldiers, who were ignorant of the stratagems of the enemy, and us the veteran conquerors.  One Figuero, a particular friend of Estrada, was sent with a hundred new soldiers to the province of Oaxaca.  On passing through the country of the Zapotecas, Figuero fell into a dispute with one Alonzo de Herrera, who had been sent to command there by the late governor Aguilar, in which Figuero and three soldiers were wounded.  Finding himself unable for the field, and that his soldiers were unfit for expeditions among the mountains, Figuero thought proper to search for the sepulchres