History of Mexico, Volume 1, 1516-1521

by Hubert Howe Bancroft

FOOTNOTES

[37] Herrera says it was the San Sebastian; Oviedo, the Trinidad.

[38] Town and river given both by Cortés and Orontius. Colon writes R: de almeria; Ribero, almera; Vaz Dourado, allmeira; Hood, Almeria; nos. vi. and vii., Munich Atlas, rio de almeria, and Mercator, Almeria. Ogilby places north of Lhanos de Almeria a large gulf labelled R. de S P^o y S Paulo, and south of it Toluia, and Tore Branco. Dampier lays down Almeria I. opposite Tispe and Haniago Isle on the mainland. Laet gives Naothlan ó Almeria, and Lhanos de Almeria.

[39] ‘Vimos las sierras de Tusta, y mas adelante de a hi á otros dos dias vimos otros sierras muy altas, q̄ agora se llamã las sierras de Tuspa;’ so called, Bernal Diaz says, Hist. Verdad., 10, from the towns lying at their base. The Rio de Tuxpan is supposed to be the San Pedro y San Pablo of early days. ‘Da das Peter-und-Pauls-Fest auf den 29 Juni.’

[40] Kohl thinks Grijalva did not pass Cabo Rojo, the C:. roxo of Vaz Dourado, and Hood, and I am inclined to agree with him. Bernal Diaz says, Hist. Verdad., 10, ‘Y esto es ya en la Provincia de Panuco: é yendo por nuestra nauegaciõ llegamos á vn rio grande, que le pusimos por nõbre Rio de Canoas.’ The nomenclature of this stream is quite regular in the several times and places. Cortés gives Rio Panuco loaton; Colon, R: panuco; Ribero and Vaz Dourado, panuco; Orontius, R. panico; Hood, Panuço; Baptista Agnese, panucho, and rio panucho; no. vi. Munich Atlas the same; Ptolemy, 1530, in Munster, Panuco; Mercator, river and town Panuco, and next town south Chila. And so on with Hondius, Ogilby, Dampier, and the rest. See Goldschmidt’s Cartog. Pac. Coast, MS., i. 578. Upon the hypothesis that the San Pedro y San Pablo and the Tuxpan were two streams, the latter may have been the Rio de Canoas of Grijalva and the Pánuco discovered by Montejo and Alaminos the year following, as Kohl surmises, but not otherwise. Herrera says the expedition did not pass Cabo Rojo; Bernal Diaz speaks of a wide projecting cape, which does not exist beyond the Pánuco River. Yet both affirm that the province of Pánuco was reached, and we well know that little would be said to strangers of an aboriginal province by its inhabitants before its great town, or its great river, was approached. Hence the general impression that Grijalva on this occasion coasted as far as Tampico, and that the Pánuco was his Rio de Canoas. It is my opinion that the entrance to the Bahia de Tanguijo, mistaken for a river, was the Rio de Canoas of Grijalva, and that Cabo Rojo was his ultimate point of discovery.

[41] Some say sixteen.

[42] In questo giorno sul tardi vedessemo miracolo ben grande el qual fu che apparve una stella incima la nave dapoi el tramontar del sole et partisse sempre buttando razi fino che se pose sopra quel vilagio over populo grande et lasso uno razo ne laiere che duro piu de tre hore grande et anchora vedessimo altri signal ben chiari dove comprendessemo che dio volea per suo servitio populassemo la dicta terra. Itinerario, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 302.

[43] Bernal Diaz claims to have planted here the first orange-seeds sown in New Spain. It was at the base of a temple, on whose summit he had enjoyed a refreshing sleep, above the clouds of mosquitoes, and through gratitude he sowed these seed, which he had brought from Cuba. He tells, likewise, of obtaining here by barter 4,000 pesos, which, with the 16,000 pesos Alvarado carried home, made 20,000 pesos secured during the voyage. Among the treasures were some copper hatchets, which the Spaniards took to be an inferior kind of gold. Las Casas gives a detailed description of the treasures obtained by this expedition, among which was an emerald worth 2,000 ducats, from the mainland opposite Isla de Sacrificios.

[44] This, following Oviedo, who in 1523 visited Velazquez, and was told these things. Other authors give widely different accounts of Grijalva’s return, most of them taking him at once from Tonalá to Matanzas, but allowing forty days for the voyage. Oviedo dates Grijalva’s arrival at the River Goazacoalco July 9; at Deseado, August 17; at Champoton, September 1; San Lázaro, September 5, and Matanzas, October 8, which is too early, according to the date of Cortés’ instructions.

[45] Oviedo says that Olid went to Cozumel and took possession of the island, thinking he had discovered it; then coasting north and westward to a port, Laguna de Términos, and finding no traces of Grijalva, and having lost his anchors, he returned to Matanzas eight days before Grijalva; but in this statement he is sustained neither by his contemporaries nor by his own collateral statements. Velazquez’ instructions to Cortés are dated the 23d of October, at which time neither Olid nor Grijalva had returned, since Cortés is told to search for them; both arrived, however, before he sailed.

[46] It was in May, 1519, according to Oviedo, that Benito Martin—some call him Martinez—sailed for Spain, Grijalva having arrived at Santiago late in the October previous. By reference to a Velazquez memorial, in iv. 233-4, Col. Doc. Inéd., we find that before this, upon the strength of Córdoba’s discovery, the king, on the 13th of November, 1518, at Saragossa, made Velazquez adelantado of what he had discovered, or might discover. Thus far he claimed as having found, at his own cost, Cozumel and Yucatan, the Santa María de los Remedios of the Spaniards, which was not true. Indeed, these memorials of the descendants of conquerors are, as a rule, widely different from the facts; instance this one again, which gives Olid seventy men instead of seven. As a matter of course, the honor of the discovery is claimed wholly for the governor of Cuba, to the prejudice of others who ventured more than he. See Carta del Ayunt. de Vera Cruz, in Col. Doc. Inéd., i. 418-9. Instance further a Memorial del negocio de D. Antonio Velazquez de Basan, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., x. 80-6, in which Grijalva is given five ships and a year and a half, and Olid three ships and seventy men. In the Instruccion que dió el adelantado Diego Velazquez á Hernan Cortés, in Col. Doc. Inéd., xii. 226-46, the little boat of Olid has grown into a caravel with 80 or 90 men.

[47] Las Casas saw him at Santo Domingo in 1523. He was reduced to penury. Proceeding thence to Panamá, he was sent by Pedrarias to Nicaragua, where he was killed. So perished the best and morally bravest of cavaliers, while unscrupulous tricksters flourished. Prior to his departure from Cuba, however, and notwithstanding the vile treatment of the governor, at Velazquez’ request, Grijalva wrote a narrative of his expedition, which was lost by Oviedo in its transmission to the king. It is embodied, however, in substance, in Oviedo, i. 502-37. One of the most original and complete accounts of Grijalva’s expedition extant is that by the priest Juan Diaz, Itinerario de Larmata del Re Catholico in India verso la Isola de Iuchathan del anno M. D. XVIII, alla qual fu Presidente & Capitan Generale Ioan de Grisalva; el qual e facto per el capellano maggior de dicta Armata a sua Altezza, published in Italian, at Venice, in 1520, in French by Ternaux-Compans, in 1838, the former being copied and quoted in manuscript by Prescott. The issue at Venice was as the second part of the Itinerario de Ludovico de varthema Bolognese nello Egitto, nella Soria, etc., and was there begun, Qui comincia lo Itinerario de Lisola de Iuchatan nouamente ritrouata per il signor Gioan de Grisalue, etc. By far the best edition is that given with a Spanish translation by Icazbalceta, in his Col. Doc., i. 281-308, printed in Mexico in 1858. Next is the account by Bernal Diaz, who, like the chaplain, accompanied the expedition, thus giving us narratives by eye-witnesses at once from ecclesiastical and secular stand-points. The statements of Gomara, Hist. Ind., 56-8, and Hist. Mex., 9-11, must be taken with allowance. Worse still are the memorials of the relatives of Velazquez to sovereign majesty, such as that found in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., x. 80-6, which are little better than tissues of misstatements and exaggerations. Solis, Hist. Mex., i. 24-40, gives a fair, full, and graphic statement of particulars. The Instruccion que dió el adelantado Diego Velazquez á Hernan Cortés, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xii. 226-51, also important, as furnishing original collateral light. Las Casas, Hist. Ind., iv. 16, 421-4, though full, is specially inaccurate and weak, not only in his facts, but in his deductions. Nor is Peter Martyr, dec. iv. cap. iii., any stronger. Clavigero, Storia Mess., iii. 4-6, De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 341-6, and Landa, Rel. de Yuc., 21, are mediocre; and Herrera, dec. ii. lib. iii. cap. i. and ix., is quite full and very valuable. Cogolludo, Hist. Yucathan, 8-16, gives a fair résumé, but a far better one is Torquemada’s, i. 351-7. Prescott’s account, Mex., i. 224-9, is meagre and imperfect, though his deductions are much more sound than those of Robertson’s Hist. Am., i. 240-3. One of the most superficial of the modern narratives of this expedition is given by Zamacois, Hist. Méj., ii. 236-52. Those by Morelet, Voy. dans l’Am. Cent., i. 179-85, and Fancourt’s Hist. Yuc., 9-18, are valuable. A collection of extracts from several letters to Charles V., referring to Yucatan, and forming ‘an account of a recently discovered island, describing its locality, the customs and habits of its inhabitants,’ was printed at Nuremberg, by Frederick Peypus, in 1520, under title beginning Ein auszug ettlicher sendbrieff dem aller durchleüchtigisten. Carbajal Espinosa, Hist. Mex., i. 51-65, ii. 21, and Ramirez, in his Mexican edition of Prescott, i. 132 and 135, beside narratives, give portraits of Velazquez, Córdoba, and Grijalva. Sahagun, Hist. Conq., 9-13, and Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., iv. 27-50, are most valuable from an aboriginal stand-point. Alaman, in his Disert., i. 49-91, treats of both Córdoba’s and Grijalva’s voyages. Among the many allusions to these two expeditions of no special significance are those found in Ogilby’s Am., 76-8; Purchas, His Pilgrimes, v. 858; Oveido, Sommario, in Ramusio, Viaggi, iii. 182-9; Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, iii. 242-3; Robertson’s Visit Mex., i. 143; Voy., Cur. and Ent., 471-9; World Displayed, i. 166-79; Voy., A New Col., i. 189-98; Sammlung aller Reisebesch., xiii. 254-64; Laharpe, Abrégé, ix. 219-31; Kerr’s Voy., ii. 70-1, and iii. 416-53; Klemm, Allgemeine Cultur-Geschichte, 219; Cordua, Scheeps-Togt, 3-18, and 35-89, in Aa, Naaukeurige Versameling, Montanus, Nieuwe Weereld, 72-5; Gottfried, Reysen, iii.; Folsom, in Cortés’ Despatches, 6-8; Howitt’s Hist. U. S., i. 8-9; Lardner’s Hist. Discov., ii. 43-4; Span. Conq. in Am., ii. 3-9; Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt. iii., 106-9; Larenaudière, Mex. et Guat., 53-4; Calle, Mem. y Not., 81-2; Mayer’s Mex. Aztec, i. 14-15; Hassel, Mex. Guat., 6; Holmes’ An. Am., i. 35-7; Galvano’s Discov., 130-2; Corradi, Descub. de la Am., ii. 7-19; Dalton’s Conq. Mex. and Peru, 47-9; Span. Emp. in Am., 27-8; Snowden’s Am., 77-9; Raynal, Hist. Phil., iii. 246-7; Descripcion de Am., MS., 112-13; Gordon’s Hist. Am., 112-13; Malte-Brun, Yucatan, 23-4; Wilson’s Conq. Mex., 291; Castellanos, Varones ilustres de Indias, 71; Peter Martyr, dec. iv., cap. i.-v., Dufey, Résumé, i. 97-103; Mavor’s Hist., xxiv. 65-6; Gregory’s Hist. Mex., 19-20; Norman’s Rambles, 95; Wilson’s Mex. and Reg., 18; Colton’s Jour. Geog., No. vi. 84; Newe Zeittung von Jucatan, 1, etc.; Monglave, Résumé, 41-6; March y Labores, Marina Española, i. 463-4; Cortesii, von dem Newen Hisp., pt. ii. 2-5; Morelli, Fasti Novi Orbis, 16; Armin, Alte Mex., 77-8; Touron, Hist. Gen. Am., iii. 58-78; Bussierre, l’Empire Mex., 193-9; Sandoval, Hist. Carlos V., i. 161-2; Cortés, Hist. Mex., 30-110; Campe, Hist. Descub. Am., ii. 7-19; Cortés, Aven. y Conq., 12-13; Stephens’ Incid. of Travel in Yuc., ii. 366-9; Drake’s Voy., 161-3; Hart’s Tabasco, 4-5; La Cruz, v. 541-4; Nouvelles An. des Voy., xcvii. 30-1, and clxiv. 101; and Manzi, Conq. di Mess., 1-3.

[48] Called Borrego, says Torquemada, i. 361. Bernal Diaz gives Borrego as the second surname.

[49] Bernal Diaz says Augustin Bermudez.

[50] Las Casas regarded him as a schemer, and often warned Velazquez against ‘Veintidos años de Italia.’ Hist. Ind., iv. 447. He calls him likewise ‘Burgalés’ and ‘hombre astutísimo.’

[51] ‘Que partirian,’ says Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 13, ‘entre todos tres la ganancia del oro, y plata, y joyas, de la parte que le cupiesse á Cortés,’ and also, growls Las Casas, ubi supra—knowledge of the facts as yet being but rumor—what Cortés could steal from the king and the governor was subject to division, beside what he would rob from the natives.

[52] Hernan, Hernando, Fernan, Fernando, Ferdinando. The names are one. With no special preference, I employ the first, used by the best writers. Among the early authorities, Solis, the Spanish translator of De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, and many others, write Hernan; Pizarro y Orellana, Varones Ilvstres, Fernan; Bernal Diaz and Oviedo, Hernando; Gomara, Fernando. In accordance with the Spanish usage of adding the mother’s surname, he is sometimes, though rarely, called Cortés y Pizarro. For portrait and signature I refer the reader to Alaman, Disert., i. app. i. 15-16; portrait as an old man; Clavigero, Storia Mess., iii. 6-8; Prescott’s Mex., iii. 1; Id., (ed. Mex., 1846, iii. 210-11); Armin, Alte Mex., 82, plate from the painting in the Concepcion Hospital at Mexico; March y Labores, Marina Española, i. 466.

[53] In making out the commission Duero stretched every point in favor of his friend, naming him captain-general of lands discovered and to be discovered, as well as of the fleet. Solis, Hist. Mex., i. 47; for the greater the share of Cortés, the greater Duero’s share. Gomara says, Hist. Mex., 12, ‘Hablo a Fernâdo Cortés para q̄ armassen ambos a medias, porq̄ tenia dos mil Castellanos de oro,’ etc.; but 2000 castellanos alone would not purchase a half interest in this undertaking. Las Casas, loc. cit., states that Velazquez, for reasons that will appear in the next chapter, was very cautious in intercourse with Cortés until his scruples were overcome by advisers.

CHAPTER IV.
THE HERO OF THE CONQUEST.

Birthplace of Hernan Cortés—His Coming Compensatory for the Devil-sent Luther—Parentage—Hernan a Sickly Child—Saint Peter his Patron—He is Sent to Salamanca—Returns Home—Thinks of Córdoba and Italy—And of Ovando and the Indies—Chooses the Latter—Narrow Escape during a Love Intrigue—Ovando Sails without Him—Cortés Goes to Valencia—Is there Ill—Returns Home—Finally Sails for the Indies—His Reception at Santo Domingo—He Fights Indians under Velazquez, and is Given an Encomienda—Goes to Cuba with Velazquez—Makes Love to Catalina Suarez—But Declines to Marry—Velazquez Insists—Cortés Rebels—Seizures, Imprisonments, Escapes, and Reconciliation.

Let us now look into the life of this Cuban magistrate, so suddenly raised to prominence.

Medellin, a small town of Estremadura, Spain, was the birthplace of Hernan Cortés, and 1485 the year in which he was born—miraculously born, as Mendieta and others believe, and perhaps by way of compensation for the appearing about this time of Martin Luther.[54] The shade of Montezuma, peradventure, might deny that his was the advent of a new Messiah, though the deluded monarch, at the first, sorrowfully hailed him as such. The father, Martin Cortés y Monroy, was of that poor but prolific class who filled Spain toward the close of the Moorish wars, and who, although nothing in particular, were nevertheless permitted to call themselves hidalgos, sons of something. Some give him the title of escudero, others place him still higher in the scale of fighting men. The mother, Catalina Pizarro y Altamirano, likewise, with poverty, claimed noble blood.[55]

Hernan was a sickly child, and probably would have died had not his good nurse, María de Estévan, secured in his behalf Saint Peter, thenceforth his patron.[56] With his mother’s milk he drank courage[57] and intelligence, and he was schooled in the virtues and the vices of the day. In his youth he was headstrong, but chivalrous, and he revelled in his superiority over other boys. The brain-ferment, chronic throughout his life, set in at an early day. He was keenly sensitive to disgrace. As he developed somewhat of archness and duplicity, he was deemed best fitted for the profession of the law. At the age of fourteen, accordingly, with such preparation as the slender means of the father would allow, he was sent to Salamanca, whose university, though past the zenith of its fame, was still the leading seat of learning for conservative Spain. Two years of restraint and intellectual drudgery, during which time he lived with his father’s brother-in-law, Nuñez de Valera, sufficed to send him home surfeited with learning, to the great disappointment of his family.[58] A frolicsome and somewhat turbulent disposition, more marked since his college career than previously, made his return all the more unwelcome. Not that his studies, despite his aversion to them, had been wholly neglected; he could boast a smatter of Latin, which indeed proved of advantage afterward, giving him influence over many of those with whom he associated. He had also acquired some knowledge of rhetoric, as is manifest in his letters and occasional verses.[59] At present, however, his intellectual talents were employed only in scribbling rhymes in aid of amorous intrigues, which were now his chief pursuit. Hence when arms possessed his fancy the parents did not repine, but were only too glad for him to enter service, as he seemed inclined, under the Gran Capitan, who was just then alluring to his standard the chivalry of Spain by brilliant achievements in Italy. There was, however, the glitter of gold in the Indies, and the appointment of Nicolás de Ovando,[60] as governor, turned the youth’s vacillating mind in that direction.

Cortés had concluded to accompany the new governor, when one night, just before the sailing of the fleet, an accident intervened. While engaged in one of his intrigues he had occasion to climb a courtyard wall to gain the lady’s apartment. The wall crumbling beneath his weight threw him to the ground, and the noise brought to the door of an adjoining house a blustering Benedick, who, perceiving the situation of the gallant, and suspecting his own newly made wife, drew the sword with bloody intent. At the prayer of the suspected wife’s mother, however, the husband suspended vengeance. Before the scapegrace recovered from a fever brought on by the bruises received in this fall, the fleet of Ovando had sailed.

After this, Cortés thought again of Italy, and went to Valencia to place himself under Córdoba, but once more illness overtook him, this time accompanied by destitution, and he returned to Medellin somewhat sobered.[61] Thus another year was idled away; but notwithstanding his follies, the youthful cavalier, who was now nineteen, displayed many fine qualities. As he approached manhood his health improved, and form and features became more pleasing. Though proud in his bearing, and of quick perceptions, and high-spirited in temper, he sought to school his tongue, and to practise discretion in the use of his sword. Native to him were generosity and amiability. The qualities of his heart were noble; the vices were those of his time and station. Yet he lacked the moral fibre which should be interwoven with the good impulses of every rich, sensitive nature, and this want could not be made up by repeating prayers and singing psalms, wherein Gomara describes him as efficient.

The pinching economy to which Cortés was reduced made his present frequent visions of the Indies appear only the brighter; and when, in 1504, a fleet of five ships was announced to sail for Española, he determined to delay no longer. With little else than his father’s blessing he proceeded to Seville, and took passage with Alonso Quintero, master of one of the vessels, who fancied himself shrewder than other men, and shrewder than he was. Thinking to overreach his brother captains in whose company he sailed, and to secure at Española the first market for his merchandise, he stole forth one night from the Canary Isles, where the squadron had touched for supplies. A gale dismasted his vessel on reaching the open sea, and sent him back to port. The others agreed to await his repairs, which generosity Quintero repaid by seeking a second time to take advantage of them by going before, and his treachery was a second time punished by the winds, aided, indeed, by the pilot, who was at enmity with the captain, and who threw the ship from her course during the night so that the reckoning was lost. The usual sufferings are related; and, in answer to prayer, we are told of a miraculous interposition. On Good Friday, when all hope had been abandoned, there was seen poised above the ship a dove, which presently dropped down and rested on the mast.[62] However this might have been, we are credibly informed that the wind subsided and the ship proceeded on her voyage. Finally, on reaching his destination, Quintero found the other ships snugly riding at anchor, their cargoes having been profitably disposed of several days before.

The governor being absent, his secretary, Medina, received Cortés kindly, and pointed him the common highway to fortune. “Register yourself a citizen,” he said. “Promise not to leave the island for five years, and you shall have lands and Indians; after the expiration of your time you may go where you choose.” Cortés answered: “I want gold, not work; and neither in this island nor in any other place will I promise to remain so long.” He thought better of it, however, and on the return of Ovando he presented himself, and was induced to settle. Not long after an Indian revolt called Diego Velazquez, lieutenant of Ovando, into the field, and Cortés hastened to join the expedition. The coolness and ability displayed in this short campaign won for him the admiration and esteem alike of chief and comrades.[63] His reward was an encomienda of Indians in the Daiguao country, together with the notaryship of the new town of Azua. For the next six years he was occupied in husbandry and in official pursuits, varied by military exploits and love intrigues which kept his sword from rusting and gave him wounds which he carried through life. An abscess under the right knee, a most lucky affliction, alone prevented his joining the ill-fated expedition of Nicuesa to Veragua.[64]

On assuming the direction of New World affairs as governor, in place of Ovando, Diego Colon in 1511 fitted out an expedition against Cuba, and gave the command to Velazquez, who appointed Cortés his adviser and executive officer,[65] a position which the latter gladly accepted, deprived as he was of his patron Ovando, and heartily tired of the monotony of Española. Still hidden beneath a careless exterior were the deeper qualities of his nature, and there were yet six other years, and more of ordinary business and pleasure, before the appearance of earnest thought or great self-reliance.[66] Meanwhile Spanish women were not numerous in the Indies, and rivalry for their favors was great. Cortés had escaped with light punishment many gallantries, but he had not been settled long in Cuba before he found a more serious case upon his hands.

Among those who had settled in Cuba was a family from Granada, Suarez by name, consisting of a widow, her son Juan, and three daughters, remarkable for their beauty. They had come with the vireyna María de Toledo, and Gomara is so ungallant as to say that their object was to secure rich husbands.[67] Scores of hearts are laid at their feet, but the marriage obligation is evaded by the more promising men of the colony, for the Suarez family has a somewhat clouded reputation. In one of them Velazquez takes a tender interest;, some say he marries her.[68] Cortés fancies another; Catalina is her name; he trifles with her affections, obtains her favors, promises her marriage, and then seeks to evade the issue. The brother petitions the virtuous governor, who cannot see the sister of his love thus wronged. Velazquez orders Cortés to marry Catalina. The cavalier refuses. Enmity arises between the two men, and without difficulty Cortés is persuaded by certain disaffected to join a cabal against the governor. Nocturnal meetings are held at the house of Cortés; and when it is determined to lay their fancied grievances before the authorities at Santo Domingo, Cortés is chosen bearer of the complaints.[69] As he is about to embark on his perilous mission, to traverse in an open boat eighteen leagues of open ocean, the governor hears of it, seizes the envoy, and sends him in chains to the fortress. His partisans are likewise imprisoned, and active in preferring charges against them are Bermudez, the two Velazquez, Villegas, and Juan Suarez. Friends intercede and prevent immediate hanging.[70] Cortés resolves on escape. With some difficulty he extricates himself from his fetters, seizes the sword of the sleeping guard, forces the window, and dropping to the ground takes refuge in the church.[71] Velazquez, enraged at the escape, yet not daring to violate the privilege of sanctuary, resorts to artifice. Introducing some soldiers into the chapel through a small door in the rear, the blushing Catalina is stationed at a distance before the sacred edifice as a decoy. The lover sees her; the dear girl wishes to speak with him, but her maidenly modesty forbids her nearer approach. Cortés rushes forward to clasp her in his arms, only to be seized from behind, and placed under a strong guard in the hold of a vessel bound for Española, where, in company with the other conspirators, he is to undergo trial.[72]

Sympathy for Cortés increases with his misfortunes, and aid is furnished for a second escape. The shackles are removed, and exchanging clothes with an attendant, he mounts the upper deck,[73] strolls carelessly about watching his opportunity until he gains the skiff; then cutting loose the boat of another vessel near by, to prevent pursuit, he pulls lustily toward Baracoa. The boat becomes unmanageable, he plunges into the water, swims ashore, and once more gains the sanctuary.[74]

Cortés was sensible enough now to perceive that he had involved himself more deeply than a trifling love affair would justify, and that possibly he might best rid himself of the charming Catalina by marrying her. Once determined on this course, he called to him the brother, Juan Suarez, and informed him of his doleful resolve. Meanwhile the constant importunities of powerful friends, and the need of Cortés’ services in an Indian outbreak, induced Velazquez to make overtures of reconciliation; but Cortés met him in a haughty spirit, and surrounding the church with a guard he went his way to the wars. Notwithstanding the cavalier had made up his mind to drink the marriage-draught, he would none of the governor in it; or if he must, the reconciliation should be accomplished after his own fashion. No sooner had the governor departed than Cortés directed Juan Suarez, with lance and cross-bow, to await him at a certain place. Escaping the guard during the night, Cortés joined Suarez, and proceeded to the plantation where Velazquez was quartered. The governor, who was engaged in looking over some books of accounts, was not a little startled when Cortés knocked at the open door and entered. “Is it murder the man means with arms in his hands, and at this hour?” was his thought, as he gave the visitor a nervous welcome. “Command that no one come near me!” exclaimed Cortés, “else I will put this pike through him. And now, if my excellent and brave captain, Señor Velazquez, has aught against me, let him speak. I am here to answer.” So sweet was the mutual forgiveness that followed, that in the morning the two gentlemen were found occupying the same bed.[75] Not long after Cortés married Catalina, and jointly with his brother-in-law received an encomienda of Manicarao Indians. Like a brave cavalier he put the best face possible on the inevitable, and vowed he was as pleased with his bride as if she had been a duchess.[76] Velazquez stood godfather to a child born to them, and thenceforth addressed Cortés by the intimate term compadre,[77] investing him afterward with the staff of alcalde at Santiago de Cuba.[78] For a time, however, he remained at Baracoa, where the preceding events occurred, and beside mining he was one of the first upon the island to engage in stock raising. Thus by diligence and judicious investments he was enabled to rise from poverty, as well as from profligacy, and to stand ready to embrace the golden opportunity fortune was now about to offer him.

The soft white snow gently dropped upon the mountain top is forged by alternate thawings and freezings into hard, rasping glaciers.