Note VI‑31 — Chapter VI · INDIAN REVOLTS AND CIVIL FACTIONS IN GUATEMALA. 1529-1530.

Remesal, Hist. Chyapa, 48. Cavo makes this remark upon Remesal's account: 'It seems to me more probable that the disagreement was between an oidor and that conqueror, since it is certain that three years previously the emperor ordered the factor to leave Mexico,' Tres Siglos, i. 104-5. A letter of Bishop Zumárraga to the king dated August 27, 1529, disproves Cavo's inference that the factor was not in Mexico at the time. The bishop also gives a different version of the challenge. He states that the president Guzman, Salazar, Alvarado, and others while out riding discussed the news lately received that Cortés had been highly favored by the king and was on his way back to Mexico. Guzman remarked that he believed he would soon return, whereupon the factor passionately exclaimed, 'El rey que á tal traidor como á Cortés embia es hereje y no cristiano.' For a few days nothing was done to call the factor to account for such treasonable language, but on the 18th of the month Alvarado appeared before the audiencia and requested permission to send him a formal challenge. That body, however, defended Salazar, and on the following day their president Guzman made reply to this effect: 'Pedro de Alvarado miente como muy ruin caballero, si lo es, que el Factor no dijo tal, porque es servidor de Vuestra Majestad y no habia de decir tal palabra,' and Alvarado was ironed and thrown into prison. The bishop adds, 'y no sé qué harán dél,' and that he has three witnesses worthy of all trust and of the order of Santiago, who heard the factor use the language. Zumárraga, Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, xiii. 176-7. Zamacois gives almost the same account as the above. Hist. Méj. iv. 485-6.