s.

This Bono had first arrived in New Spain with Narvaez, and thus he was
well known to us all. After he had given each of us a hearty embrace, he
desired us to call a council of the chief authorities of the town, that
he might notify to them certain powers with which he was invested by his
majesty, and lay before them the instructions he had received from the
bishop of Burgos, from whom he brought letters for all of us. He was
provided with a number of blank papers, with only the bishop's signature
attached to them, which Juan Bono now filled up with the names of the
regidors, accompanied by all manner of fine promises, according to the
instructions he had received from the bishop; these appointments were to
be presented to the proper persons mentioned therein, if we gave up
possession of the country to Cristobal de Tapia. This Bono was not at
all aware that Tapia had returned to St. Domingo; and the bishop had so
little suspected that we should not have acknowledged the authority of
Tapia, that he sent Bono after him with this commission. Among others,
my name was also put down in one of these appointments, as regidor.

Bono did not disclose any part of his commission, or produce any of his
papers, until we were all duly assembled in council; but as soon as he
mentioned the nature of his business, we stopped any discussion on the
matter, by telling him that Tapia himself had long ago left New Spain
again, and we advised him to repair to Mexico, and lay his commission
before Cortes.

When Bono, to his great surprise, found that Tapia had left the country,
he became quite downcast, set sail the very next day for Vera Cruz, from
whence he journeyed overland to Mexico. What passed between him and
Cortes I do not know, but I understood that the latter supplied him with
a certain sum of money to defray the expenses of his voyage back to
Spain.

I could say a good deal of the numerous battles we fought, and of the
great fatigues we underwent during our stay at Guacasualco, in putting
down the frequent insurrections in the provinces; but it is high time I
should relate something about the expedition of Alvarado to the province
of Tutepec.

CHAPTER CLXI.

_How Alvarado marches to the province of Tutepec, to build a town
there; and how far he succeeded in subduing the country, and in
founding a colony._

To give an account of Alvarado's expedition to the province of Tutepec,
we must return to the p