out of the irons that
held them, and then stole cautiously to the deck, where he found a boat
floating by the vessel's side. Slipping down into this, under cover of the
darkness, he cut loose and paddled silently away.

When near the shore he met with a rapid current and rough waters, to which
he was afraid to trust the boat. Being an expert swimmer, he thought it
safest to breast the water himself, and boldly plunged overboard. He found
his task a hard, almost a fatal one; the current threatened to sweep him
away, but after a long struggle with the waves he succeeded in reaching
the shore, in a state of almost complete exhaustion. He now sought the
church again, no doubt resolving this time to keep safely within its
sacred shelter.

The story goes on to state that the governor, worked upon by friends of
the culprit, offered him forgiveness, which the incensed young cavalier
was too proud to accept. What followed is amusing. Velasquez was at a
distance from the capital, on a military excursion, when one evening he
was startled in his tent by the appearance of his enemy, completely armed
and threatening in aspect. In dismay, the governor asked him what he
wanted. Cortez replied, angrily, that he was tired of being treated like a
felon, and that he must have an explanation or he would know the reason
why. Velasquez answered as angrily, and a hot altercation followed. But at
length their talk became more friendly, and in the end their old amicable
relations were resumed and they embraced like a pair of lovers. The
amusing part of the story is this: When a messenger arrived to tell the
governor that Cortez had left the sanctuary and disappeared, he found the
governor and the culprit both fast asleep in the same bed.

This story seems doubtful, but at any rate they became friends again, and
Cortez was given a large estate in Cuba, which he stocked with cattle, and
on which he found gold-mines, which were worked by Indian labor. He
married a beautiful Spanish girl, and, fast growing rich, spent several
years in happy content.

This, with some, would have been the end of a career. It was only the
beginning of that of Cortez, before whom still lay a wonderful history and
a record of undying fame. All we can tell here is how this came about. It
began in expeditions of discovery. Cordova, a Cuban settler, seeking
Indians for slaves in the Bahamas, was blown far westward by a storm, and
reached an unknown shore, where the nativ