In the north, the brothers Gonzalo and Pedro de Alvarado, Hernán Cortés and others headed various expeditions into present-day Guatemala and Honduras.
In the south, Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, acting under the auspices of Pedrarias Dávila in Panama, moved into what is today Nicaragua.
The September 13, 1543, decree ordered that the new Audiencia move to Valladolid de Comayagua and that the province of Yucatán be added to its district, but this was not accomplished until 1550.
The Audiencia provisionally moved to Gracias a Dios on May 16, 1544, until the royal decrees of October 25, 1548 and June 1, 1549, ordered its return to Santiago de Guatemala.
[1] In the City of Santiago de los Caballeros of the Province of Guatemala shall reside another Royal Audiencia and Chancery of ours, with a president, governor and captain general; five oidores, who shall also be judges of criminal cases [alcaldes del crimen]; a crown attorney [fiscal]; a bailiff [alguacil mayor]; a lieutenant of the Gran Chancellor; and the other necessary ministers and officials, and which shall have for district the said province of Guatemala; and those of Nicaragua, Chiapas, Higueras, Cabo de Honduras, Verapaz and Soconusco with the Islas de la Costa; bordering its district in the east with the Audiencia of Tierrafirme, in the west with the one of New Galicia, and in the north with it and the North Sea, and in the south with the South Sea.
And we order that the governor and captain general of said provinces and the president of the Royal Audiencia of these, have, use and exercise by himself the government of that land and all its district, in the same manner as does our viceroy of New Spain and determine the repartimientos of Indians and appoint other offices, as said Royal Audiencia used to do, and that the oidores do not interfere with these matters, nor that said president interfere in matters of justice and that he sign with the oidores that which they sentence and decree.As part of the Bourbon Reforms in 1786 the crown established a series of intendancies in the area, which replaced most of the older corregimientos.