Hernando Cortez

The career of Hernando Cortez is one of the most wild and adventurous recorded in the annals of fact or fiction, and yet all the prominent events in his wondrous history are well authenticated. All truth carries with itself an important moral. The writer, in this narrative, has simply attempted to give a vivid idea of the adventures of Cortez and his companions in the Conquest of Mexico. There are many inferences of vast moment to which the recital leads. These are so obvious that they need not be pointed out by the writer.

A small portion of this volume has appeared in Harper's Magazine, in an article furnished by the writer upon the Conquest of Mexico.

CONTENTS

Chapter Page

I. THE DISCOVERY OF MEXICO 13

II. EARLY LIFE OF CORTEZ 28

III. THE VOYAGE TO MEXICO 57

IV. FOUNDING A COLONY 84

V. THE TLASCALANS SUBJUGATED 117

VI. THE MARCH TO MEXICO 150

VII. THE METROPOLIS INVADED 184

VIII. BATTLE OF THE DISMAL NIGHT 214

IX. THE CAPITAL BESIEGED AND CAPTURED 246

X. THE CONQUEST CONSUMMATED 281

XI. THE EXPEDITION TO HONDURAS 305

XII. THE LAST DAYS OF CORTEZ 330

ENGRAVINGS.

Page

AMERICA DISCOVERED 16

CORTEZ TAKING LEAVE OF THE GOVERNOR 47

CUBA 52

THE FIRST MASS IN THE TEMPLES OF YUCATAN 61

FIRST CAVALRY CHARGE HEADED BY CORTEZ 73

INTERVIEW BETWEEN CORTEZ AND THE EMBASSADORS OF MONTEZUMA 94

ROUTE OF CORTEZ 105

DESTROYING THE IDOLS AT ZEMPOALLA 120

MASSACRE IN CHOLULA 161

FIRST VIEW OF THE MEXICAN CAPITAL 168

THE MEETING OF CORTEZ AND MONTEZUMA 177

THE CITY OF MEXICO 190

THE FALL OF MONTEZUMA 222

THE BATTLE UPON THE CAUSEWAY 232

THE CAPTURE OF GUATEMOZIN 260

HERNANDO CORTEZ.

CHAPTER I.

THE DISCOVERY OF MEXICO.

The shore of America in 1492.--Doubt and alarm.--A light appears.--He watches the light.--The shore is seen.--The Spaniards land and are hospitably received.--Mexico is discovered.--Arts and sciences of the Mexicans.--The mines of precious metals.--Code of laws.--Punishments. --Slavery.--Military glory.--Mexican mythology.--The three states of existence.--Infant baptism.--Worship.--The temples and altars.--Mode of offering sacrifice.--City of Mexico.--Montezuma.--Civilization of the inhabitants.--The Governor of Cuba resolves to subjugate the country.--Motives for carrying on conquests.--Hernando Cortez.

Three hundred and fifty years ago the ocean which washes the shores of America was one vast and silent solitude. No ship plowed its waves; no sail whitened its surface. On the 11th of October, 1492, three small vessels might have been seen invading, for the first time, these hitherto unknown waters. They were as specks on the bosom of infinity. The sky above, the ocean beneath, gave no promise of any land. Three hundred adventurers were in these ships. Ten weeks had already passed since they saw the hills of the Old World sink beneath the horizon.

For weary days and weeks they had strained their eyes looking toward the west, hoping to see the mountains of the New World rising in the distance. The illustrious adventurer, Christopher Columbus, who guided these frail barks, inspired by science and by faith, doubted not that a world would ere long emerge before him from the apparently boundless waters. But the blue sky still overarched them, and the heaving ocean still extended in all directions its unbroken and interminable expanse.