ispatched in the midsummer of 1519 under the pilot-captain
Alaminos. As it passed Havana it was espied by Juan de Rojas, a cousin
of Velasquez, who sent word of it to Velasquez. The latter sent out
Gonzalo de Guzman to intercept and seize it, but he failed in the
errand.

Finding his appeals and protests ineffective against the gold of Cortez,
Velasquez determined to use force. He was Adelantado, by royal
commission. Therefore Cortez was a rebel. He rallied his friends, in
both Cuba and Hispaniola. He used his own immense wealth freely for the
purchase and equipment of ships. He enlisted an army twice as great as
the force which had accompanied Cortez. With this expedition he purposed
to follow Cortez to Mexico, and compel his submission. Whether he would
have succeeded in this undertaking, had it not been interfered with,
must remain subject matter of speculation; for there was prompt and
effective interference. Diego Columbus, in Hispaniola, became much
concerned. He was still Admiral, and nominally, at least, superior in
authority to Velasquez as well as to Cortez, and he did not wish to have
his subordinates fighting among themselves. So he sent one of the most
eminent Spanish colonial judges, Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, to Cuba to
make peace. This envoy reached Santiago in January, 1520, just in time
to find that Velasquez and his expedition had already sailed for Mexico.
With the swiftest vessel he could find he set out in pursuit, and was
lucky enough to overtake them where they had stopped for supplies, in
Corrientes Bay, near the extreme western point of the island.

Ayllon seems to have been vested with no actual authority over
Velasquez. He merely tried to dissuade him from executing his purpose.
He urged him to content himself with sending one or two vessels on to
Mexico, with a summons to Cortez, to return or at least to abandon his
pretensions of independence and to acknowledge the authority of
Velasquez; under penalty of being reported to the King as a contumacious
rebel. The rest of the expedition, he suggested, might be used in
explorations elsewhere. Above all, he pleaded with Velasquez not to go
to Mexico himself, but to return to Santiago, where his presence was
sorely needed. Velasquez yielded to these entreaties so far as to
abandon personal leadership of the expedition. He made Panfilo de
Narvaez leader in his stead, and then returned to Santiago. Ayllon went
along with Narvaez, to keep the peace. T