Works, Volume 7

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Talboys and Wheeler, 1825 - America

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Page 56 - Cortes, unwilling to employ force, endeavoured alternately to soothe and to intimidate him. The altercation became warm ; and having continued above three hours, Velasquez de Leon, an impetuous and gallant young man, exclaimed with impatience, " Why waste more time in vain ? Let us either seize him instantly, or stab him to the heart.
Page 291 - They possessed it only for a year, at the expiration of which a new division was made, in proportion to the rank, the number, and exigencies of each family.
Page 47 - ... and discovered the capital city rising upon an island in the middle, adorned with its temples and turrets ; the scene so far exceeded their imagination, that some believed the fanciful descriptions of romance were realized, and that its enchanted palaces and gilded domes were presented to their sight ; others could hardly persuade themselves that this wonderful spectacle was anything more than a dream.
Page 2 - ... bears all the marks of authenticity, and is accompanied with such a pleasant naivete, with such interesting details, with' such amusing vanity, and yet so pardonable in an old soldier who had been (as he boasts) in a hundred and nineteen battles, as renders his book one of the most singular that is to be found in any language.
Page 16 - ... his capital, or even allow them to continue longer in his dominions, the Spanish general declared, in a manner more resolute and peremptory than formerly, that he must insist on his first demand, as he could not, without dishonour, return to his own country, until he was admitted into the presence of the prince whom he was appointed to visit in the name of his sovereign. The...
Page 118 - Cortes, from solicitude to check this growing spirit of discontent, gave way to a deed which sta'ins the glory of all his great actions. Without regarding the former dignity of Guatimozin, or feeling any reverence for those virtues which he had displayed, he subjected the unhappy monarch, together with his chief favourite, to torture, in order to force from them a discovery of the royal treasures, which it was supposed they had concealed.
Page 356 - Proselytes adopted with such inconsiderate haste, and who were neither instructed in the nature of the tenets, to which, it was supposed, they had given assent, nor taught the absurdity of those which they were required to relinquish, retained their veneration for their ancient superstitions in full force, or mingled an attachment to its doctrines and rites with that slender knowledge of christianity which they had acquired.
Page 170 - This he showed successively to several Spaniards, asking its meaning ; and to his amazement, they all, without hesitation, returned the same answer. At length Pizarro entered ; and, on presenting it to him, he blushed, and with some confusion was obliged to acknowledge his ignorance. From that moment Atahualpa considered him as a mean person, less instructed than his own soldiers ; and he had not address enough to conceal the sentiments with which this discovery inspired 1533. him. To be the object...
Page 111 - ... but as the enemy pressed on, and their own impatience to escape increased, the terror and confusion became so general, that when they arrived at the gap in the causeway, Spaniards and Tlascalans, horsemen and infantry, plunged in promiscuously, while the Mexicans rushed upon them fiercely from every side, their light canoes carrying them through shoals which the brigantines could not approach.
Page 259 - The Mexican tongue abounded in expressions of reverence and courtesy. The style and appellations used in the intercourse between equals woulo. have been so unbecoming in the mouth of one in a lower sphere, when he accosted a person in" higher rank, as to be deemed an insult [146].

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