link to Nicaragua. The expedition was intercepted and captured by Sandoval, who sent some of the Nicaraguan party back to Cortés at Trujillo. They informed Cortés of a plan by Hernández de Córdoba to set himself up in Nicaragua independently of Pedrarias Dávila in Panama. Cortés responded courteously and offered supplies while the expedition was passing through Honduras, but sent letters advising Hernández de Córdoba to remain loyal to Pedrarias Dávila. Hernández was able to collect a substantial amount of gold in Nicaragua, collecting more than 100,000 pesos of gold in a single expedition; this was consequently seized by Pedrarias Dávila. In May 1524, Hernández sent a brigantine back to Panama with the Royal fifth, which amounted to 185,000 gold pesos. By 1525, Spanish power had been consolidated in western Nicaragua, and reinforcements had arrived from Natá, in Panama, which had become a key port of call for shipping between Nicaragua and Panama. Intrigue in Nicaragua, late 1525 The friendly contacts between Hernán Cortés and Francisco Hernández de Córdoba were viewed with deep suspicion by those in León who remained loyal to Pedrarias Dávila, such as Hernando de Soto, Francisco de Compañón, and Andrés de Garabito. These officers may also have been motivated by ambition to view Hernández de Córdoba's contact with Cortés as treachery against Pedrarias Dávila. Hernández de Córdoba's position in Nicaragua was consolidated by his foundation of three colonial towns there, although his contract for conquest specifically limited his license to two years from the day he sailed from Panama. Hernández de Córdoba's growing claim over the territory may also have caused Pedrarias Dávila to view his contacts with Cortés with deep suspicion, and a threat to Dávila's own claim. Rumours, encouraged by Hernández de Córdoba's enemies, spread quickly in the colony that he was plotting with Cortés. About a dozen supporters of Hernando de Soto and Francisco de Compañón secretly plotted against Hernández de Córdoba; he responded by seizing de Soto and imprisoning him in Granada. De Soto and de Compañón fled Nicaragua with several companions, and took word to Pedrarias Dávila in Panama, arriving there in January 1526. Pedrarias Dávila in western Nicaragua, 1526–1529 Pedrarias Dávila set out from Nata by sea with soldiers and artillery, and landed on the island of Chira, in the Gulf of Nicoya, opposite the colonial settlement of Bruselas on the mainland (then within the jurisdiction of Nicaragua, but now