The high office and the important task imposed on him seem to have sobered the excitable, and heretofore fickle, mind of our hero. His ardent animal spirits, under the influence of a bold and lofty purpose, became the servants rather than the masters of his indomitable will, and he at once proceeded to arrange all the details of the expedition which he was to lead to Mexico. The means that he did not already possess in his own coffers, he raised by mortgage, and he applied the funds, thus obtained, to the purchase of vessels, rations, and military stores, or to the furnishing of adequate equipments for adventurers who were too poor to provide their own outfit. It is somewhat questionable whether Velasquez, the Governor, was very liberal in his personal and pecuniary contributions to this expedition, the cost of which amounted to about twenty thousand gold ducats. It has been alleged that Cortéz was the chief support of the adventure, and it is certain, that in later years, this question resulted in bitter litigation between the parties. * * * * * Six ships and three hundred followers were soon prepared for the enterprise under Cortéz, and the Governor proceeded to give instructions to the leader, all of which are couched in language of unquestionable liberality. The captain of the Armada was first to seek the missing Grijalva, after which the two commanders were to unite in their quest of gold and adventure. Six Christians, supposed to be lingering in captivity in Yucatan, were to be sought and released. Barter and traffic, generally, with the natives were to be encouraged and carried on, so as to avoid all offence against humanity or kindness. The Indians were to be christianized;--for the conversion of heathens was one of the dearest objects of the Spanish king. The aborigines, in turn, were to manifest their good will by ample gifts of jewels and treasure. The coasts and adjacent streams were to be surveyed,--and the productions of the country, its races, civilization, and institutions, were to be noted with minute accuracy, so that a faithful report might be returned to the crown, to whose honor and the service of God, it was hoped the enterprise would certainly redound. Such was the state of things in the port of St. Jago, when jealous fears began to interrupt the confidence between Velasquez and Cortéz. The counsel of friends who were companions of the Governor, and his own notice of that personage's altered conduct, soon put the new Captain General of the Armada on his guard. Neither his equipment nor his crew was yet complete; nevertheless, he supplied his fleet with all the provisions he could hastily obtain at midnight; and, paying the provider with a massive chain which he had worn about his neck,--the last available remnant, perhaps, of his fortune,--he hastened with his officers on board the vessels.