Impatient of the long absence of Grijalva, he despatched a vessel in
search of him under the command of Olid, a cavalier who took an
important part afterwards in the Conquest. Finally he resolved to
fit out another armament on a sufficient scale to insure the
subjugation of the country.
He previously solicited authority for this from the Hieronymite
commission in St. Domingo. He then despatched his, chaplain to Spain
with the royal share of the gold brought from Mexico, and a full
account of the intelligence gleaned there. He set forth his own
manifold services, and solicited from the country full powers to go on
with the conquest and colonisation of the newly discovered regions.
Before receiving an answer, he began his preparations for the
armament, and, first of all, endeavoured to find a suitable person
to share the expense of it, and to take the command. Such a person
he found, after some difficulty and delay, in Hernando Cortes; the man
of all others best calculated to achieve this great enterprise,- the
last man to whom Velasquez, could he have foreseen the results,
would have confided it.
Chapter II [1518]
HERNANDO CORTES- HIS EARLY LIFE- VISITS THE NEW WORLD-
HIS RESIDENCE IN CUBA- DIFFICULTIES WITH VELASQUEZ-
ARMADA INTRUSTED TO CORTES
HERNANDO CORTES was born at Medellin, a town in the south-east
corner of Estremadura, in 1485.
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