.... male slave....XVI. Notice of Donna Marina. ....XVII. Message from the governors of the Province-Cortes lands and establishes his camp. ...XVIII. Receives a visit from the governors -Demands to be introduced to the king-Present from Montezuma....XIX. Mexican painters describe the Spaniards and their equipage.... XX. Disquietude of Montezuma-Causes thereof.... XXI. Embassy from Montezuma to Cortes -Rich present-Montezuma declines his visit. •XXII. Cortes persists in his intention to visit Mexico... XXIII. He seeks a more advantageous site for his colony.... XXIV. Irresolution of Montezuma-Peremptorily prohibits the approach of Cortes-His present for the king of Spain.... XXV. Diversity of opinion in Cortes' councils XXVI. Remonstrance of OrdazCortes consents to return to Cuba-Discontent and remonstrance of the army.... XXVII. Cortes encourages the establishment of a civil colonyResigns his office to the civil chiefs-Is elected by the council Commander-in-chief, and Chief Justice.... XXVIII. Cortes arrests the leaders of Velasques' faction-Conciliates them.... XXIX. The Spaniards are visited by the Chempoallese, and invited to their city....XXX. The army sets out for Chiahuitzla by the way of Chempoalla. .... •XXXI. Foundation of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz.... XXXII. Cortes excites the Chempoallese to revolt-They_imprison the collectors of the royal tributes-Duplicity of Cortes....XXXIII. Seven Spaniards desire to return to Cuba—Misrepresentation of the chief of Chempoalla.... XXXIV. Indignation of Montezuma appeased by the report of his liberated officers-New Embassy-Cortes openly sustains the revolt of the Totonecas....XXXV. Cortes destroys the idols of Chempoalla....XXXVI. Cortes receives a re inforcement from Cuba-the council and himself address the king....XXXVII. Conspiracy among some soldiers to return to Spain-Discovery and punishment of the conspirators..........XXXVIII. Cortes proposes and obtains the destruction of his ships....XXXIX. A vessel sent by Francis de Garay governor of Jamaica arrives on the coast. I. Before the voyages of Cordova and Grijalva, an account of which has been given in the second volume of our Cabinet, the Spaniards had found in the New World, only a timid race, enervated by the softness of the climate, and the sloth and voluptuousness which it induced; or rude and barbarous tribes prone to violence, but unskilled in the arts, to make their ferocity terrible. The government of both these classes was of the simplest form, and such as is found in the earliest stages of political society. The discoveries upon the coasts of Yucatan and of the Mexican gulph had made known to the eager curiosity and cupidity of the Castilians, a people much advanced in civilization, practised in the fabrication and the use of arms, learned in systematic warfare, which they conducted by regular armies of mercenaries, experienced and inspirited by many and extensive conquests; rich in civil institutions, by which society was divided and graduated, by very artificial scales, science cherished, the rights to real and personal property established, and a complex religious hierarchy founded. The importance of this discovery might well be compared with the original success of Columbus, and conceived to transcend the latter in beneficial results. In periods of less excitement, even Spanish daring might have paused, before it resolved upon the attempt to subjugate such a people, par ticularly after the evidence it possessed of their disposition to defend their shores and protect their institutions from foreign invaders. But the vast disproportion the Spaniards had hitherto found in arms and arts, and intellectual power, between themselves and the aborigines of America, led them justly to believe, that the inequality of their numeral force, scarce merited consideration in any contest with the latter. II. Moved by these convictions, Don Diego Velasques, governor of the island of Cuba, by the appointment of the second admiral, did not hesitate with his slender means to attempt the conquest of an extensive and civilized empire, whose population was not less, in all probability, than seven millions. We have seen, that immediately after the arrival of Alvarado, and before the return of Grijalva, he had commenced preparations for the enterprise; but the choice of an able commander was not more requisite to success, than difficult to make. Velasques was himself ambitious, covetous of power and of fame, and not destitute of talents for government; but he was wanting in the energy and activity of mind, which would fit him to direct in person the armament he was preparing. He was therefore desirous to select an officer with courage and capacity to conduct the expedition, but, who, contented with some inferior reward, would yield to him the power and the glory which might result from success. But as the qualities of genius, courage, and prudence, are rarely united with poverty of spirit, his search was tardy and difficult; and when he thought it happily completed, resulted in the most bitter disappointment. There were in Cuba several adventurers, whose merits and connections authorized them to seek the command. Among them were, Antonio and Bernardino Velasques, relatives of the Governor, Baltazar Bermu dez, Vasco Porcallo, and other cavaliers; but none were supposed to possess the incompatible qualities desired by the Governor. After long and anxious deliberation, his choice was fixed by the influence of Amadar de Lares, the royal treasurer in Cuba, and Andres Duero, his own secretary, persons who possessed his full confidence, and who were the intimate friends of Fernando Cortes. They maintained their recommendation, of this extraordinary man, with great caution and judgment; rather leaving his qualifications and circumstances to operate upon the Governor, than risking to excite the suspicions of the latter, by fervent praises of their friend.* III. Hernan, or Fernando Cortes, was born at Medellin, a small town of Estremadura, in the year 1485, of a noble, but reduced family. He was destined by his parents to the profession of the law, and was sent at an early age to the University of Salamanca, where he acquired some knowledge of letters. But this pursuit being uncongenial with an ardent temperament and great animal spirits, he retired to Medellin in disgust, and surrendered himself wholly to active sports, and martial exercises, the fit preparations for the employment he most coveted. The marked bias of his mind, his restless and impetuous disposition, and his dissipated habits, drew from his father a glad consent that he should seek his fortune in arms. There were at this period, two theatres, to which all who courted military glory resorted; one in Italy directed by Gonsalvo the Grand Captain, and the other in the New World. Cortes preferred the former, but being prevented by sickness, from embarking with a reinforcement of troops sent to Naples, he turned towards America, allured by the * Solis, Herrera, Clavigero. hope of the protection of Ovando, then Governor of Hispaniola, who was his kinsman. He landed on that island in 1504, was very favorably received, and immediately employed in honorable and lucrative stations. The quiet state of St. Domingo, now wholly subjected to Spanish power, afforded little scope for his active and restless spirit; and with the assent of his relative, he passed over to Cuba, where Velasques was employed in reducing the inhabitants to obedience. Here, soon after his arrival, he married Donna Catalina Suarez Pacheco, a lady of noble family, but whose gallantry caused him some inquietude, to which the Governor was an auxiliary cause. But at length being taken into favor by the latter, he obtained an ample repartimiento, or donation of lands and slaves, the reward usually sought by adventurers to the New World. Although hitherto unemployed in high commands, Cortes had occasionally displayed qualities, which raised him greatly in the esteem of his countrymen; who viewed him as one fitted for great actions. The turbulence of youth amid worthy and suitable occupations had subsided into regular and indefatigable activity. His impetuous temper restrained by intercourse with his equals, was mellowed into cordial and soldierly frankness. He was as prudent in concerting, as vigorous and persevering in executing his schemes, and he possessed in an eminent degree, that distinguishing mark of superior genius, the art of gaining the confidence * Gomara relates that Cortes was to have accompanied Ovando in 1502, but was detained by an accident. Attempting in a dark night to scramble up to the window of a lady's bed-chamber, with whom he carried on an intrigue, an old wall, on the top of which he had mounted, gave way and he was so much bruised by the fall as to be unfit for the voyage. Gomara, Cronica de la Nueva Espana cap. 1. 2 Robt. Note xcviii. |