A commission was appointed at Guatimala, where Jorge de Alvarado commanded, of which I never learnt the result.  In Mexico the most severe proceedings were adopted against the Marquis della Valle, during which the factor Salazar reviled and slandered him in the grossest manner.  The licentiate Altamirano, his friend and manager of his affairs, remonstrated with the court against these indecent proceedings, but to no purpose, as Guzman and the surviving judges gave their countenance to Salazar, who became more abusive than ever; insomuch that on one of these occasions Altamirano drew his poniard, and would have stabbed the factor, throwing the court into confusion and uproar, if he had not been prevented.  Altamirano was sent prisoner to the citadel, and Salazar was ordered into arrest in his own house, and the city was thrown into an universal ferment.  At the end of three days, the licentiate was liberated from confinement at our earnest desire, and the dispute was quieted for the present; but a more serious disscution succeeded.  One Zavalos, a relation of Narvaez, had been sent by his wife in quest of him, as he had gone as governor to the Rio Palmas, and had not been heard of for a long while.  On coming to Mexico, Zavalos, as is supposed by instigation of the members of the royal court of audience, lodged criminal information against all the soldiers of Cortes who had been concerned in the attack upon Narvaez; so that about two hundred and fifty of us, then in the city, myself among the rest, were apprehended, brought to trial, convicted, and sentenced to a fine of a certain quantity of gold, and banishment to the distance of five leagues from Mexico:  But the banishment was remitted and very few paid the fine.

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