Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/123

Rh govern that isle, subject to the young admiral's dictation; and beside these, a small establishment at Puerto Rico, and Pedrarias on the Isthmus, there was no European ruler in the regions, islands or firm land, between the two main continents of America.

The administration of the religiosos showed little improvement on the governments of their predecessors, who, while professing less honesty and piety, practised more worldly wisdom; hence within two short years the friars were recalled by Fonseca, who, on the death of Jimenez, had again come into power in Spain, and the administration of affairs in the Indies remained wholly with the audiencia of Santo Domingo, the heirs of Columbus continuing to agitate their claim throughout the century.

It was as the lieutenant of Diego Colon that Velazquez had been sent to conquer Cuba; but that easy work accomplished, he repudiated his former master, and reported directly to the crown.

Velazquez was an hidalgo, native of Cuéllar, who, after seventeen years of service in the wars of Spain, had come over with the old admiral in his second voyage, in 1493, and was now a man of age, experience, and wealth. With a commanding figure, spacious forehead, fair complexion, large clear eyes, well-chiselled nose and mouth, and a narrow full-bearded chin, the whole lighted by a pleasing intellectual expression, he presented, when elegantly attired as was his custom, as imposing a presence as any man in all the Indies. In history he also formed quite a figure. And yet there was nothing weighty in his character. He was remarkable rather for the absence of positive qualities; he could not lay claim even to conspicuous cruelty. He was not a bad man as times went; assuredly he was not a good man as times go. He could justly lay claim to all the current vices, but none of them were enormous enough to be interesting. In temper he was naturally mild