As rumours had reached Spain that the king of Portugal (in spite of the decision of this conference) was determined to maintain his pretensions by force, a company, under Spanish protection, was formed at Seville to prosecute the trade with these eastern islands. Cabot was appointed chief of this association, and among its members appears the name of his sincere friend Robert Thorne[70] of Bristol, then a resident in Spain. The agreement, which was executed at Madrid on the 4th of March, 1525, stipulated that the king of Spain was to receive from the company four thousand ducats, besides a share of the profits of the expedition, and that a squadron of at least three vessels, of not less than one hundred tons,[71] and of one hundred and fifty men each, should be furnished and placed under the command of Cabot, who was to receive the title of Captain-General. But many vexatious obstacles were thrown in the way of the expedition. Instead of pushing directly across the Pacific after traversing the Straits of Magellan, Cabot had instructions to proceed deliberately to explore on every side, particularly the western coast of the continent,[72] where the Portuguese traded. [Sidenote: Leaves for South America, April 1526, in command of an expedition to the Brazils.] [Sidenote: A mutiny and its suppression.] As Portugal had hitherto monopolised the lucrative commerce of that new-found region, the utmost alarm was excited when it became known that a Spanish expedition was preparing to sail under the charge of so daring and intrepid a mariner as Sebastian Cabot. Remonstrances in every conceivable form were addressed to the government of Spain; threats and entreaties were alternately used to terrify or to soothe the navigator himself, and even assassination was openly spoken of as not an unmerited punishment to defeat “so nefarious a project.” The king of Portugal himself had, more than once, in the most public manner, asserted that it would be “the utter destruction of his poor kingdom” if he was deprived of the monopoly of the trade with the Moluccas.[73] Although the opposition did not prevail, the influence which had been used delayed the departure of the expedition until April 1526, and the seeds of discontent had been so extensively sown among the fleet, that a mutiny on the coast of Brazil, not unlike what Columbus had encountered on his first great voyage of discovery, threatened the annihilation of the Spanish fleet. Cabot, like Columbus, when similarly situated, saw that his only safety lay in extreme boldness, for, like him, he belonged to that rare class of men whose powers unfold at trying moments. He knew that by a daring exercise of that rightful authority, to which the habit of command on the ocean lends a moral influence, men ready to commit murder may be awed into passive instruments. He therefore seized the three leaders of the mutiny, though they were his confidential officers, and the men next