ents. Off
the Mexican coast, however, that expedition ran into a succession of
violent storms which so discouraged and dismayed Olid that he abandoned
his errand and scuttled incontinently back to Cuba without so much as
communicating with Grijalva. The latter, accordingly, after spending the
summer and early fall in Mexico, and despairing of receiving the
increased authority which he deemed essential to the further success of
his expedition, reembarked and returned to Cuba, arriving at Matanzas
early in October.

There he found Olid, who had reached that port only a few days before,
and who had not yet communicated with Velasquez the news of the failure
of his errand. Olid's report to Velasquez, which was then promptly
dispatched, contained therefore the news of Grijalva's return as well as
his own. As soon as he received this, Velasquez sent word to Grijalva to
come at once to Santiago and report to him in person, but to let his men
remain at Matanzas, or at Havana, since he wanted them to serve in
another Mexican expedition which he was already fitting out. Most of the
men were willing to do this, and were accordingly maintained there at
the cost of Velasquez, or of the Spanish Crown, until he was ready to
use them; though a certain number expressed themselves as having had
their fill of exploring and accordingly returned to their homes in
various parts of Cuba.

Grijalva repaired, as summoned, to Santiago, and there met what we must
regard as an unjust and unmerited fate. Velasquez expressed entire
dissatisfaction with his conduct, particularly in not having planted
permanent settlements in Mexico; the very thing which Grijalva had
wanted to do but was forbidden by Velasquez himself to do. This
extraordinary inconsistency on the part of Velasquez can probably be
explained on the ground that he himself had been forbidden by the
Jeronimite Fathers to plant such colonies, and did not venture to
disobey them, but had hoped that Grijalva would disobey them. He further
let his unhappy nephew know that, because of his failure to disobey
orders, he would have no further use for him. He was sending out another
expedition to Mexico, to plant permanent colonies there, but it would be
under other leadership, and Grijalva would have no part in it whatever.
As Grijalva had already alienated most of his men by refusing to break
his orders, he was thus left friendless, and he played no further part
in the history either of the Cu