pen, and some idols. He delivered all these things to
Grijalva, having first taken off the ear-rings, pendants, plates, and
crowns of gold with which the idols were adorned, worth about ninety
pieces of eight, which he endeavoured to conceal; but not being able to
dissemble his joy for the booty he had obtained, Grijalva had notice of it;
yet, being of a generous temper, he restored all to Prado, reserving only
the fifth for the king. When they had refitted their ship, they sailed in
forty-five days to Cuba, with gold to the value of 4000 pieces of eight,
besides what Alvaredo had carried. When they came to pay the fifth for the
copper axes, which they had bought for gold, they were much confused on
finding them rusty. They put into the harbour of Matancas, where Grijalva
found a letter from Velasquez, ordering him to tell the soldiers that
another fleet was fitting out for returning to make a settlement in New
Spain, and that those who chose to go back should remain at some farms
belonging to the governor in that neighbourhood. Grijalva himself was
ordered to come with all speed with the ships to Santiago, where the new
fleet was fitting out. On appearing before Velasquez, he had no thanks for
all the trouble he had been at, and was even abused for not having made a
settlement, though he had acted exactly according to his instructions.
This was a capital blunder in Velasquez, as he seemed resolved to find a
person fitted both for making discoveries and of betraying him by setting
up for himself. One would have imagined that a man of so much good sense
as Velasquez certainly had, would have had the judgment to retain in his
employment a person so fit for his purpose as Grijalva had proved; and the
very thing for which he disgraced him ought assuredly to have preserved
him from that fate, since only by a scrupulous regard to his instructions
had he refrained, after such valuable discoveries, from pursuing that line
of conduct by which he was most likely to have established his fortune and
independence. But Velasquez, like many other men of excellent abilities,
often preferred the opinions of others to his own, thereby losing the
opportunities which his superior talents afforded. Yet it is highly
probable that this very error contributed more to the important conquests
which were afterwards made by the Spaniards, than the wisest measures he
could have taken.

[1] The Sue Tajassu of Naturalists, or the Pecary. This singula