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He determined, therefore, to march again to the Vega, and endeavor either to get possession of the person of the Adelantado, or to strike some blow, in his present crippled state, that should disable him from offering further molestation.
But we thundered with our cannon and we loosed two bloodhounds and we charged. For a time the brown, naked foe fought desperately, but at last he broke. Far streamed five hundred fleeing particles into the gloomy, the deep, the matted forest. Up the river came a long boat, and we found it to hold Diego Tristan and eight men sent by the Admiral with a forgotten word for the Adelantado.
Sailing, he arrived near the mouth of the river on the 30th of August, when a caravel, appeared, on board of which came the Adelantado. The brothers met with mutual joy, but the latter grieved to see the great navigator so broken down in health, a mere wreck of himself, though with his spirit still rising superior to all bodily affliction.
To the adventurers was granted a twentieth part of the clear profit, and the governorship of any islands they might discover was to be vested in them and their heirs, who were to bear the title of Adelantado.
Nearby is the tomb of his father, that Rodrigo de Bastidas who was imprisoned by Bobadilla, and an epitaph full of abbreviations which reads: "Here lies the very magnificent Sir Don Rodrigo de Bastidas, first Adelantado and Governor and Captain-General of Santa Marta, who in the year 1502 discovered Terra-firma by order of the Catholic Sovereigns from Cape Vela to Darien: he died March 28, 1527."
His first step was to form a settlement to provide a depot for the gold which might be collected. A convenient site was found near the mouth of the river Bethlehem, and by the end of March the Adelantado had built a village of huts, in which it was proposed that he should remain, with about eighty followers, while Columbus returned to Spain for supplies.
In all these rapid and energetic proceedings of the Adelantado, and still more from causes over which he had no control, the Spaniards must have suffered much; and, doubtless, those complaints on their part, which were soon to break out very menacingly, were not unheard at the present time.
The Adelantado found it difficult, therefore, to maintain so large a force in the neighborhood, until they should have time to cultivate the earth, and raise live-stock, or should receive supplies from Spain.
The Viceroy grew younger, the Adelantado grew younger, and Don Diego, and with them those who held by them through thick and thin. The Admiral began to talk Discovery. It was two years since there, far to the south, we had passed in by the Mouth of the Serpent, and out by the Mouth of the Dragon. The Viceroy, inspecting the now quiet Vega, rode to an Indian village, near Concepcion.
Martinez was instructed to solicit a commission, authorizing Velasquez to procure gold from the new discovered country, or to make conquests and settlements, as he might see fit; and in this he so effectually succeeded, that he brought back a commission for Velasquez as adelantado of the island of Cuba, so well pleased was the court with his conduct in regard to the discoveries, and the proofs which he had transmitted of the wealth of those countries which he had discovered.
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