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scattered where peace only had prevailed, and enmity
was spread through the regions where friendship had been cherished.
The crime was unprofitable, and was finally avenged.
One of the returning ships foundered at sea, and the guilty and guiltless perished; many of the captives in the other sickened and died.
The events that followed mark the character of the limes.
Vasquez, repairing to
Spain, boasted of his expedition, as if it entitled him to reward, and the emperor, Charles V., acknowledged his claim.
In those days, the
Spanish monarch conferred a kind of appointment, which, however strange its character may appear, still has its parallel in history.
Not only were provinces granted; countries were distributed to be subdued; and
Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon begged to be appointed to the conquest of
Chicora.
After long entreaty, he obtained his suit.
The issue of the new and bolder enterprise was
disastrous to the undertaker.
He wasted his fortune in preparations; his largest ship was stranded in the
River
Jordan; many of his men were killed by the natives, whom wrongs had quickened to active resistance; he himself escaped only to suffer from wounded pride; and, conscious of having done nothing worthy of being remembered, the sense of humiliation is said to have hastened his death.
1
The love of adventure did not wholly extinguish the
desire for maritime discovery.
When
Cortes was able to pause from his success in
Mexico, and devise further schemes for ingratiating himself with the
Spanish monarch, he proposed to solve the problem of a northwest