buildings. A large
proportion of the most efficient men of the island had followed
Cortez--and Narvaez--to Mexico. Moreover, Diego Columbus, at Hispaniola,
was threatening trouble. It must be remembered that Velasquez had
practically flouted Columbus's authority, almost as much as his own had
been flouted by Cortez. At any rate, the Admiral had a serious grievance
against him, and deemed this a fitting time for calling him to account.
Apparently he was further aggrieved because Velasquez would not more
fully accept the counsel of Ayllon. At any rate, in the middle of
January, 1521, he sent over to Cuba an envoy, to take the place of
Velasquez as Governor of Cuba and to investigate the manner in which
Velasquez had administered his affairs. This envoy was Alfonso de Zuazo,
who thus became the second Governor of Cuba.

In this action Velasquez acquiesced; probably because he durst not do
otherwise. It would have been a dangerous thing in any circumstances to
defy the Admiral; and it would have been superlatively so at a time when
Cuba had just been stripped of its ships and its best fighting men.
Nevertheless, he pointed out that he himself was still commandant of the
fort at Baracoa, and was Repartidor of the natives throughout the
island. This latter was in some important respects a more influential
office than that of Governor, and it Velasquez held, not by the
Admiral's appointment but by virtue of a commission granted directly by
the King himself. He could not, therefore, be superseded or interfered
with in any way by the Admiral or any of his underlings, nor by anybody
short of the King himself. In this he was quite right, and when Zuazo,
relying upon Diego Columbus's authority, did infringe upon some of
Velasquez's functions and powers, the latter complained to the King, and
the King disavowed Zuazo, and severely reprimanded Columbus.

Velasquez was not, however, yet at the end of his difficulties. The
royal vindication of his claims was gratifying, and he doubtless felt
some secret satisfaction in the humiliation of Diego Columbus. But the
son of the great Admiral was not a man to be flouted with impunity, not
even by the King of Spain. True, he acquiesced, perforce, in the royal
decree. But his resourceful mind quickly devised another line of attack
upon Velasquez. At the beginning of 1522, accompanied by two judges of
the supreme court of Hispaniola, he proceeded to Santiago de Cuba, and
there instituted a jud