Cortes’ danger was not yet over. The officials continued sending unfavorable reports to Spain and a new commission was appointed with absolute power to investigate and punish him. Cortes was informed of its purposes. He was furiously indignant to find the arduous and important service he had rendered the fatherland thus requited, and his friends counselled him, in view of such shameful treatment, to meet force with force. He hesitated, however, to take a step which would conflict with the loyalty and obedience he owed his sovereign, and at last decided to suffer ungrateful and shameful treatment rather than resist the legal authority of his country. He resolved to go to Spain and entrust his fate to the mercy and justice of the King.
As he appeared before his sovereign, all eyes were turned with admiration and respect upon the man whose achievements seemed to eclipse those of the great heroes. The modesty with which he plead his cause before the high judges removed the suspicions they had entertained. The King received him with expressions of the highest respect and gratitude and showered favors upon him. He decorated him with the order of St. Iago, elevated him to the rank of count, and conferred upon him a broad stretch of territory in Mexico which would yield him a large revenue. But when they came to the confirmation of his governorship, it was clearly apparent they considered it dangerous to invest him anew with the power he might misuse. All that he received was his recognition as general and permission to make new discoveries. The entire administration of civil affairs was entrusted to a viceroy.
Cortes went back to Mexico, but from that time forward his career was marked by an unbroken series of troubles. He was so hampered by the viceroy’s strictness and so humiliated by his loss of authority that his only relief was found in the discovery and conquest of new regions. He fitted out an expedition on the west coast of Mexico for making discoveries in the great South Sea and succeeded in finding the peninsula of Lower California. Upon his return his life became so embittered that he decided to go to Spain again, appeal to the justice and former favor of the King, and lay his grievances before him in person. He little anticipated the still greater troubles he must endure. During his restless and martial life he had had little chance to know the fickleness of a court and the unreliability of the favor of the great. He was now to discover it.