When the ship I have mentioned had come into port, and the gentleman who was her Captain had come ashore, he went to Cortés to kiss hands, and gave him a letter from the Licentiate Zuazo whom he had left in Mexico as Chief Alcalde.

As soon as Cortés had read the letter he became so miserable that he shut himself in his chamber and began to sob, and he did not come out again until the next morning, which was Saturday, and he ordered Mass of Our Lady to be said early in the morning. After Mass had been said, he begged us to listen to him and we should hear news from New Spain, how a report had been spread that we were all dead, and how they had seized our property and sold it at auction, and taken away our Indians and divided them among other Spaniards who did not deserve them. Then he read the letter from the beginning, and the first item in it was the news which came from Castile from his father Martin Cortés and from Ordas, [stating] how the Accountant Albornoz had gone against him [Cortes] in the letters he wrote to His Majesty and to the Bishop of Burgos and to the Royal Audiencia, and what His Majesty had ordered to be done about it, [namely] to send the Admiral with… men, as I have stated in the chapter that treats of it; and how the Duke de Bejar had become surety and pledged his fortune and head for Cortés and for us, that we were very loyal servants of His Majesty, and other things which I have already mentioned in the chapter which tells about it;