Even the concession he was compelled to make sufficed to fan the smouldering fires of the governor's jealousies to a flame, and he was more than ever convinced that in the person of Balboa he had a deadly rival and insidious foe, who should be removed from his path at whatever cost. It was at this juncture, while the friends of the discoverer were flocking about him with rejoicings, and he himself was openly exultant, that there arrived in the gulf a vessel consigned to him, freighted with arms and ammunition, and containing seventy adventurers, evidently intended for a secret expedition. It was, in fact, commanded by one of his former comrades, Andres Garabito, who had been sent by him to Cuba, several months before, with orders to raise a force and procure an armament for a projected expedition to the Pacific coast. It may have been Balboa's intention to proceed over the mountains with this armed band and seize upon the government of which he had been deprived by stratagem; but this is unlikely, as the movement was made before he had received the royal title to it. The mere fact, however, that a mysterious ship was off the coast and holding secret communication with the adelantado, was sufficient to rouse the old governor's passions, and in a transport of fury he ordered him to be seized and imprisoned in a wooden cage. XVII A COMPACT WITH THE ENEMY 1516 Fortunately for Balboa, his friend the bishop interposed before the governor carried out his intention, and persuaded him, not only to release the prisoner, but to give him the benefit of an impartial inquiry. The inquiry was entered into, but was conducted by the lawyer Espinosa, and so protracted that, though the accused was acquitted of any evil intentions in importing the men and armament, yet he was harassed to the verge of desperation and completely impoverished. Lawyer Espinosa was enjoying a monopoly of all legal processes, owing to the king's prohibition against others of his class, and had already involved nearly every man in the colony in some sort of entanglement, from which he could extricate himself only by paying to the licentiate a good fat fee. The good offices of the bishop did not cease with a single effort in behalf of his friend, for he recommended him to Pedrarias as the proper person to conduct an expedition across the mountains, to the sea he had discovered, for the purpose of investigating the islands abounding in pearls. This step, however, the yet jealous Pedrarias refused to take. He intended to have the islands explored, but not by their discoverer, as that would only add to the laurels he already wore, and increase his popularity both at Darien and in Spain.