María de Toledo, vice-queen of the Indies and mother of the young admiral Luis Colon, after the death of her husband, Diego Colon, demanded from the royal audiencia of Española a license to colonize the province of Veragua.[III‑2] The audiencia referred the application to the emperor who ordered that the matter be held in abeyance until after the arbitration of the claim of Luis then pending before the crown. But the high-spirited vice-queen would not brook the delay. The right of her son to govern that land was beyond question; it was his by inheritance from his grandfather, confirmed by royal decree to his father. [Sidenote: FELIPE GUTIERREZ.] But the Lady María lacked funds for the enterprise, and to enlist men and equip an armada without the royal sanction and without money was impossible. The mother, however, was equal to the emergency. Among the ecclesiastics of Santo Domingo who, as they avowed for the glory of God and the promulgation of the true faith had left the cloisters of Spain and embarked in a mission to the New World, was one Juan de Sosa. "I knew him," says Oviedo, "several years ago, when he was a poor man in Tierra Firme." But being more solicitous for gold than for souls, he went to Peru and after serving under Pizarro came in for a share at the distribution of the gold at Caxamalca, receiving as his portion the then enormous sum of ten thousand castellanos. Thence the worthy priest returned to Spain, and settled in Seville, where he resolved to spend the remainder of his life in ease and luxury. But alas for constancy of purpose in cavalier or clérigo when women and cupidity unite to undermine his resolve! The vice-queen soon gained for herself the sympathy of the wealthy ecclesiastic, and for her enterprise his money and coöperation. He advanced the necessary funds, and though prevented by the character of his calling from taking control of the expedition, he sailed with the fleet, which was placed under the command of a wealthy and honorable young man named Felipe Gutierrez,[III‑3] son of the treasurer Alonso Gutierrez. The chief captain of the expedition under Gutierrez was one Pedro de Encinasola who had resided in Tierra Firme for about two years. "And whom," says Oviedo, "I also knew, for he had grown rich by keeping a public house half way between Nombre de Dios and Panamá." With a fine squadron[III‑4] manned by four hundred well armed men, Gutierrez embarked from Santo Domingo in September 1535.[III‑5] The pilot, whose name was Liaño, held a southerly course, and on approaching Tierra Firme turned to the westward and passed by Veragua without recognizing the coast. Continuing their search along Honduras, the vessels sailed around Cape Gracias á Dios and proceeded westward as far as Punta de Caxinas.