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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 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

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