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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.
Discouragement and alarm now pervaded nearly all hearts, and there was a general clamor for return to the shores of Europe. Christopher Columbus, sublime in the confidence with which his exalted nature inspired him, was still firm and undaunted in his purpose.
[Illustration: AMERICA DISCOVERED.]
The night of the 11th of October darkened over these lonely adventurers. The stars came out in all the brilliance of tropical splendor. A fresh breeze drove the ships with increasing speed over the billows, and cooled, as with balmy zephyrs, brows heated through the day by the blaze of a meridian sun. Columbus could not sleep. He stood upon the deck of his ship, silent and sad, yet indomitable in energy, gazing with intense and unintermitted watch into the dusky distance. It was near midnight. Suddenly he saw a light, as of a torch, far off in the horizon. His heart throbbed with an irrepressible tumult of excitement. Was it a meteor, or was it a light from the long-wished-for land? It disappeared, and all again was dark. But suddenly again it gleamed forth, feeble and dim in the distance, yet distinct. Soon again the exciting ray was quenched, and nothing disturbed the dark and...
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