Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/172

52 married Catalina, and jointly with his brother-in-law received an encomienda of Manicarao Indians. Like a brave cavalier he put the best face possible on the inevitable, and vowed he was as pleased with his bride as if she had been a duchess. Velazquez stood godfather to a child born to them, and thenceforth addressed Cortés by the intimate term compadre, investing him afterward with the staff of alcalde at Santiago de Cuba. For a time, however, he remained at Baracoa, where the preceding events occurred, and beside mining he was one of the first upon the island to engage in stock raising. Thus by diligence and judicious investments he was enabled to rise from poverty, as well as from profligacy, and to stand ready to embrace the golden opportunity fortune was now about to offer him.

The soft white snow gently dropped upon the mountain top is forged by alternate thawings and freezings into hard, rasping glaciers.