This is the bright side of the picture: great defects of character tarnish it. His acts of cruelty towards his enemies, and his greed of plunder are not to be overlooked in forming an estimate of this wonderful man. Velasquez had already sent an expedition of discovery towards the west, and Grijalva, its leader, had entered the river of Tabasco, where he disembarked, but, feeling he had no authority to treat with the natives, he returned to report what he had seen and ask further instructions. Velasquez was displeased with Grijalva for this moderation, without appreciating a loyalty which he regarded as stupidity; and excited by the accounts of the new country, he resolved upon another undertaking in the same direction. He sent to Spain to ask for wider powers, and to obtain for himself the government of the lands he expected to conquer. He offered the command of this expedition to several of his relatives. They all refused it. It was then that he addressed himself to Fernando Cortés. There is a story that Cortés was in love with a young lady named Doña Catalina Juarez, who afterwards became his wife, and that the governor, Velasquez, also devoted to the Doña, subjected his brilliant rival to a terrible persecution, and even had him seized and put in prison, that Cortés escaped and took refuge in the church, a few days afterwards he was again seized, and then incarcerated in a ship with a chain about his foot. Escaping in a skiff and afterwards by swimming he reached the shore and again hid himself in a sanctuary. In the end he married Doña Catalina, goes this tale, was reconciled with the governor, and made Alcalde of Santiago de Cuba. However this may have been, Cortés received and accepted the commission now offered. His reputation for bravery and great popularity gathered about him young and old, the bold spirits of Cuba, some among them former companions of Grijalva in his expedition; Bernal Diaz, the first historian of the Conquest, Olid, Alvarado, and other men of the greatest bravery, destined to play great parts in the epic of the New World. Velasquez, even before the departure of his commander, began to distrust him, jealous again of his great powers, but they parted on good terms, and Cortés embarked at San Jago de Cuba on the 18th November, 1518. He had not gone far when an emissary of Velasquez was sent after the expedition to arrest Cortés, but encouraged by his companions, who urged him to remain at their head, he sent off the messenger and started without taking any further notice of the jealousy of his chief.