up the price of slaves. When Ferdinand died in 1516, Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros became regent for the young King Charles V. Cisneros was determined to end the abuse of the Indians. He had Ayllón and the other judges of the audencia suspended in 1517 and investigated for alleged abuses. However, when Cisneros was removed from the regency, the residencia was cut short, and the judges were restored to office in 1520. Narváez expedition Even during his suspension, Ayllón remained an influential figure in the Indies. In 1519, after Hernán Cortés began his conquest of Mexico, Cortés declared his independence from Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, the governor of Cuba and sponsor of the expedition. Fearful that the dispute between Cortés and Velázquez would escalate into open warfare, Crown authorities sent Ayllón first to Cuba to confer with Velázquez and then to Mexico in Pánfilo de Narváez's expedition in an attempt to convince both sides to settle their differences in court. When Ayllón reached Mexico, he was forcibly detained by Narváez and sent back to Santo Domingo with nothing to show for his efforts. Exploration After Ayllón's reinstatement to the audiencia, a ship arrived at Santo Domingo sometime around August 1521. The pilot, Francisco Gordillo, had been hired by Ayllón to lead a slaving expedition to the Bahamas. Finding the islands completely depopulated, Gordillo and Pedro de Quexos, pilot of another slaving ship, sailed northwest in search of land rumored to be found in that direction. On June 24, 1521, they made landfall at Winyah Bay on the coast of present-day South Carolina. After some preliminary exploration of the region, they kidnapped sixty Indians and took them back to Hispaniola. In addition to the Indian slaves, Gordillo and Quexos brought back glowing reports of the land they had found. They said it would not require military conquest and once settled the area would become a rich and prosperous colony. Ayllón was apparently inspired by these reports and soon wrote to the Spanish crown requesting permission to explore and settle the region. Later that same year he traveled to Spain on business for the audencia but used the opportunity to personally press his case for the new land. Ayllón took with him one of the captured Indians, who had recently been baptized as Francisco de Chicora. In Spain they met the court chronicler, Peter Martyr, with whom Chicora spoke at length