CHAPTER III.
RETURN OF GRIJALVA. A NEW EXPEDITION ORGANIZED.
1518.
Refusal of Grijalva to Settle—Alvarado Sent back to Cuba—Grijalva Continues his Discovery—After Reaching the Province of Pánuco he Turns back—Touching at the Rio Goazacoalco, Tonalá, the Laguna de Términos, and Champoton, the Expedition Returns to Cuba—Grijalva Traduced and Discharged—A New Expedition Planned—Velazquez Sends to Santo Domingo and Spain—Characters OF Velazquez and Grijalva Contrasted—Candidates for the Captaincy of the New Expedition—The Alcalde of Santiago Successful—His Standing at that Time.
At various places during this expedition, notably where is now Vera Cruz, and at the River Tabasco, both in coming and returning, Grijalva's men begged permission to settle and subdue the country. In their desire to remain they pictured to themselves all the pleasures of the abandoned crew of Ulysses, in a land as happy as that of which Horace sang, where Ceres decked untilled fields with sheaves and Bacchus revelled under purple-clustered vines. And they were angry with their commander for not breaking the instructions which forbade his colonizing. Pedro de Alvarado was particularly chafed by the restraint, though he kept his temper until he obtained permission to return to Cuba with one of the vessels[1] which had become unseaworthy, so as to report to the governor the progress of the discovery, and obtain recruits and fresh supplies, with permission to found a colony. Beside some fifty sick persons, all the gold, cotton, and other articles obtained from the natives
- ↑ Herrera says it was the San Sebastian; Oviedo, the Trinidad.
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