ately."

On August 14th of the same year Don Fernando had already written to
the captain thanking him for his diligence in the settlement of the
island and appointing him governor _ad interim_.

Ponce returned to San Juan in July or the beginning of August, after
the arrival in la Espanola of Diego, the son of Christopher Columbus,
with his family and a new group of followers, as Viceroy and Admiral.
The Admiral, aware of the part which Ponce had taken in the
insurrection of Roldan against his father's authority, bore him no
good-will, notwithstanding the king's favorable disposition toward the
captain, as manifested in the instructions which he received from
Ferdinand before his departure from Spain (May 13, 1509), in which his
Highness referred to Juan Ponce de Leon as being by his special grace
and good-will authorized to settle the island of San Juan Bautista,
requesting the Admiral to make no innovations in the arrangement, and
charging him to assist and favor the captain in his undertaking.

After Don Diego's arrival in la Espanola he received a letter from the
king, dated September 15, 1509, saying, "Ovando wrote that Juan Ponce
had not gone to settle the island of San Juan for want of stores; now
that they have been provided in abundance, let it be done."

But the Admiral purposely ignored these instructions. He deposed Ponce
and appointed Juan Ceron as governor in his place, with a certain
Miguel Diaz as High Constable, and Diego Morales for the office next
in importance. His reason for thus proceeding in open defiance of the
king's orders, independent of his resentment against Ponce, was the
maintenance of the prerogatives of his rank as conceded to his father,
of which the appointment of governors and mayors over any or all the
islands discovered by him was one.

Ceron and his two companions, with more than two hundred Spaniards,
sailed for San Juan in 1509, and were well received by Guaybana and
his Indians, among whom they took up their residence and at once
commenced the search for gold. In the meantime Ponce, in his capacity
as governor _ad interim_, continued his correspondence with the king,
who, March 2, 1510, signed his appointment as permanent governor.[9]
This conferred upon him the power to sentence in civil and criminal
affairs, to appoint and remove alcaldes, constables, etc., subject to
appeal to the government of la Espanola. Armed with his new authority,
and feeling himself strong in the