The King, who had so recently both humiliated him and honored him, was profoundly affected by the loss of one who had added much lustre to the crown of Spain, and wrote for his tomb an epitaph in Latin, eloquently setting forth his merits and his services. This was not, however, inscribed above his remains, and soon was forgotten. Instead, there was popularly circulated and remembered an epigram upon him coined by some adversary whose identity is unknown. This declared Velasquez to have been "Covetous of honor, but more covetous of gain."
This we must regard as unjust. Velasquez had his faults, and some of them were grave. He was at times arbitrary and ruthless, as most empire-builders of all lands have been. He was not always grateful to those who served him faithfully, nor was he impartial in his dealings with men. These faults were, however, common in those times, and they were no more marked in Velasquez than in his contemporaries. On the other hand he unquestionably had great virtues. He had courage, vision, enterprise, and statesmanlike views for the development of his domain. His work in Cuba was over-shadowed by that of Cortez in Mexico and of Pizarro in Peru, but it was in essence not less meritorious than theirs, for which indeed it prepared and opened the way. It is one of the tragedies of history that his very tomb should have been forgotten and lost, and his name remembered as a name and nothing more. For in the early history of Cuba there is no other name which stands for so much in conquest and colonization, and in the foundation, organization and development of the State, as that of the first Cuban Governor, Diego de Velasquez.
Velasquez had been Governor--technically Lieutenant-Governor under the Admiral, Diego Columbus, at Hispaniola--for more than thirteen years; save for the abortive and illegal administration of Zuazo. But after him gubernatorial terms were destined to be of much shorter duration, and marked with many vicissitudes. His nominal successor was appointed some time before his death. Whether in anticipation of his decease, or with the design of ousting him, is not clear. At any rate, at the middle of May, probably on May 20, 1524, Juan Altamarino was named by the King to be the next governor, for a term of two years and no more. He appears not to have been in any way identified with the island, though probably he had been associated with Diego Columbus in Hispaniola; and at the time of his appointment he was in peninsular Spain. He made no haste to go to Cuba and assume his office, wherefore it was necessary, upon the death of Velasquez a few weeks later, that some stop-gap governor should be named. Diego Columbus, who as Admiral might have made such temporary appointment, was also in Spain. In consequence, the Audiencia or supreme court of Hispaniola acted in his stead, and appointed Manuel de Rojas.