As many cavaliers were present when Cortes uttered this, they did not fail to acquaint his majesty with it, expressing their regret at the same time that Cortes had not sat in the council, nor did they omit to mention that the latter himself felt hurt at his having been excluded. Other cavaliers, however, openly avowed that he had been purposely excluded, because it was well to be foreseen he would have opposed the general opinion of the council, and have given his voice for prosecuting the siege. After the destruction which had been caused by the tempest, they continued, advice was scarcely needed, for all that could be done was to save the life of his majesty, and of so many distinguished cavaliers who had accompanied him on this expedition. With the assistance of God, they concluded, the expedition against Algiers might be renewed on some future occasion: and thus it was resolved the troops should return to Spain.
After the miserable termination of this perilous expedition, Cortes grew wearied of any longer stay at court; and as old age was growing upon him, and he was beginning to feel the effects of the many hardships and fatigues he had endured through life, his greatest desire was to obtain permission from the emperor to return to New Spain. To all this may be added, the breaking off of the marriage which was to have taken place between his daughter Doña Maria and Don Alvaro Perez Osorio, heir to the marquisate of Astorga, to whom Cortes had promised, as a marriage gift, above 100,000 golden ducats, besides other valuable matters. Doña Maria had expressly arrived in Seville from Mexico, at her father's desire, that the marriage might be consummated, and he was consequently much hurt and annoyed when the match was broken off. The fault, it appears, lay with the bridegroom; and certain it is this matter caused so much annoyance to Cortes that it brought on a severe fever, accompanied by dysentery. Finding that his sickness was growing upon him, he left the town of Seville, and retired to Castilleja de la Cuesta to enjoy more repose. Here he ordered all his affairs, made his last will, and was called away from this world of troubles on the 2d of September, 1547, after receiving the holy sacrament and extreme unction. He was buried with every pomp and magnificence in the chapel containing the sepultures of the dukes of Medina Sidonia, and he was followed to the grave by a large body of the clergy and a number of cavaliers. Subsequently his remains were taken to New Spain, and interred, according to a desire expressed in his last will, either in Cojohuacan or Tezcuco,[55] I forget which.
The following is what I know respecting Cortes' age. When we first set out with him for New Spain from Cuba, in the year 1519, we often heard him say in the course of conversation, that he was thirty-four years of age, and from this day until the day of his death twenty-eight years had elapsed, which will bring his age to sixty-two.[56]
The following were the children he left behind him born in lawful wedlock: the present marquis Don Martin; Doña Maria, who was to have been married to Don Perez Osorio, but who afterwards married the earl of Luna de Leon; Doña Juana, the wife of Don Hernando Enriquez, heir to the marquisate of Tarifa; and Doña Catalina de Arellano, who died in Seville. Besides these there was another daughter of Cortes, named Doña Leonor, who was married to a wealthy gentleman of Biscay, living in Mexico, named Juan de Toloso, who possessed lucrative silver mines. When the present marquis del Valle arrived in New Spain, he greatly disapproved of this match.
Besides these children, Cortes had two sons and three daughters born out of wedlock. One of these sons, named Don Martin, was a comendador of Santiago, whom he had by the interpretress Doña Marina. The other son, Don Luis, was also a comendador of Santiago, whom he had by a certain Hermosilla. Of these daughters one was named Pizarro, after her mother, an Indian woman of Cuba; the other was born of a Mexican woman.[57] Cortes had, during his lifetime, richly provided for these daughters, and had bestowed lucrative townships upon them; among others, that of Chinanta. There is no doubt he also remembered them in his will, for he was a man of deep penetration and had sufficient time in his latter days to order all his affairs in a proper manner, he would naturally not omit to fulfil anything that might tend to lighten his conscience. In this way, like a good Christian, he also left a fund for erecting an hospital in Mexico, and a cloister in Cojohuacan, where he desired his remains might be interred; besides this, he left large sums for other pious purposes. However, in order not to go too much into detail I will say nothing further on this head, indeed I have forgotten many circumstances relative to his bequests.
Cortes' armorial bearings and their motto bespoke his great valour, and were suitable emblems of his heroic deeds. The motto was in Latin, but as I am no Latin scholar I will not attempt to explain its meaning. His escutcheon bore the seven heads, chained, of monarchs whom he had conquered. These I believe, and have heard others say, represent the monarchs Motecusuma of Mexico, Cacamatzin of Tezcuco, Cuitlahuatzin of Iztapalapan; the kings of Tlacupa and Cojohuacan, and a powerful cazique of the province of Tulapa, near Matlaltzinco, who was nephew to Motecusuma, and the nearest heir to the throne of Mexico. The last was Quauhtemoctzin, who fought the terrible battles with us during the siege of Mexico.
I must now say a few words with respect to Cortes' outward person. He was of good stature, his limbs well proportioned and strongly knit together, but his complexion was rather of an ash-coloured grey, nor was there much cheerfulness in his look; and if his countenance had been somewhat larger it would have been more handsome. His eyes, generally speaking, had a remarkably sweet expression, but he could also look very grave. The hair of his beard, like that of his head, was black, but not very thick. His chest was well developed, his shoulders broad, his legs were rather bowed, but his ankles and feet were well proportioned. He had very little embonpoint, and was rather lean. He was a capital horseman, remarkably expert in all martial exercises, both as a foot and cavalry soldier; but what was more than this he was uncommonly courageous and never shrunk back from any danger. In his younger days, while living at Hispaniola, he had frequent adventures about women, and often fought with the most expert swordsmen for the possession of some fair one, and always carried off the palm of victory. On one of these occasions he was wounded beneath the underlip, the scar of which was visible through his beard. His bearing, his gait, his conversation, his behaviour during dinner-time, and the taste he showed in his dress, all bespoke the cavalier of distinction and good breeding. He always dressed according to the fashion of the day; wore very little silk, satins, or expensive damasks; but the whole of his garments were plain and very neat. He never bedizened himself with heavy gold chains, but always had the same one, which was of exquisite workmanship, and had attached to it a kind of trinket, having on one side the image of the blessed virgin, holding her heavenly Son in her arms; on the other that of St. John the Baptist, with a Latin inscription. On one of his fingers he wore a valuable ring set with a most splendid diamond. To his velvet cap was fastened a medal, with a bust in relief and some name, but I have forgotten what it was, as latterly he used to wear nothing but cloth caps, without any medal.
The style in which he lived was that of a person of high distinction. At the head of his household stood two maestresalas and two mayor-domos; he had many pages to wait upon him, and everything was served up in gold and silver. He always made a good dinner, and drank about a pint of wine diluted with water. He also took suppers; but all his dishes were plain, excepting on particular occasions, when, indeed, no expense was spared. He was always affable to us officers and his companions in arms, particularly to those who joined him in the first instance at Cuba. He was a good Latin scholar, and whenever he was in conversation with men of learning he always spoke that language; indeed, I have heard say, he was a bachelor of laws. He was also fond of poetry, and composed several pretty pieces himself, and wrote good prose. His manner of speaking was calm and his sentences were well chosen, and his manner of arguing was remarkably convincing. When he rose in the morning he prayed from his breviary, and he attended mass every day with fervent devotion. For his tutelar saint he had chosen the blessed Virgin Mary, whom, indeed, every faithful Christian ought to look up to as his protectress and holy guardian. He also held in particular veneration St. Peter, St. Jacob, and St. John the Baptist, and was liberal in bestowing alms. His oath was, Upon my conscience! And whenever he was annoyed with any of us soldiers who were upon more intimate terms with him, he used to say, May the plague take you! When he was in a passion, a vein in his forehead and neck distended considerably; and when excessively annoyed with any one, he flung down his cloak: yet he never made use of any low or unbecoming expression to his officers or soldiers. He bore everything with great patience, and though sometimes the soldiers were very inconsiderate in their behaviour, yet Cortes never forgot himself in wrathful expressions towards them, and all he said was, Hold your tongue! or, In the name of God, be gone, and for the future be more guarded in your language, for you might have to pay dearly in repeating such conduct. If he had once made up his mind to anything, he was not to be dissuaded from it, particularly in matters relating to war; and we might argue with him as we liked on the inconsiderateness of any command he might issue, it was all to no purpose,—we were obliged to act up to it, whatever the cost might be. This was frequently the case on our expeditions to the large townships which lay on the lake of Mexico, and in our attacks upon those mountains which are now known by the name of the Marquis mountains. On the latter occasion it was in vain for us to represent to him that it would be impossible to storm the rocky heights against the huge masses of stone which were rolled down upon us; that all our courage and experience would be of no avail, and that we should all run the risk of being crushed to pieces. Our words were spoken to the wind; we were ordered to ascend and peril our lives in the attempt to scale the rugged heights. The consequence was, a complete failure; ten or twelve men were killed on the spot, and the whole of us covered with wounds. On our expedition to the Honduras, after Christobal de Oli had rebelled, I repeatedly proposed to him that we should march over the mountains; but he obstinately maintained that the route along the coast was preferable, nor would he ever believe when I told him that the country through which I proposed to march was everywhere inhabited: yet those who are at all acquainted with these parts know that there is a straight road leading from Guacasualco over Chiapa and Guatimala to Naco, where Oli had fixed his head-quarters. But then I must also say that Cortes was always the first to put his hand to any laborious work we had to do. This he fully showed when we constructed the fortifications of Vera Cruz, for he himself was the first to take spade in hand and dig out the earth for laying the foundations. In every battle that was fought I always found him in the midst of the ranks. As early as in the battle of Tabasco, where he courageously headed the cavalry, he showed what kind of officer he was; the excellent example which he set during the construction of the fortress of Vera Cruz I have just mentioned. Then we must remember what great determination he showed when his brave officers and soldiers counselled him to run the thirteen vessels on shore; and not, as Gomara would have it, without consulting us. In the three battles which we fought with the warriors of Tlascalla he proved himself the most courageous of commanders. And then how daring it was to march into the city of Mexico with only 400 men, and to seize a monarch like Motecusuma in his own palace, surrounded by so many thousands of his warriors! It is certainly true he had good officers and soldiers to counsel him, yet it was an astonishingly bold step on his part when he ordered Motecusuma's generals, who had killed Juan de Escalante with seven of his men, to be burned at the stake in front of the monarch's own palace. And then what a remarkably bold and hazardous undertaking it was first of all to lead Narvaez and his 1300 well-armed troops by the nose with a few small presents, and afterwards, with only 266 men, merely armed with pikes and swords, to attack, completely overthrow them, and take the commander himself prisoner! He displayed wonderful feats of courage in our attack upon the great temple of Huitzilopochtli, before our disastrous flight from the city, though certainly neither his courage nor ours, as it unfortunately turned out, was of any avail. Shortly upon this, at the memorable battle of Otumpan, where the flower of the Mexican army was drawn up against us to put us all to the sword, it was Cortes who made the first run at the Mexican general-in-chief who carried the imperial standard, and threw him to the ground, and in an instant the courage of the enemy began to flag; though it must be borne in mind he was courageously assisted by his brave officers Alvarado, Sandoval, Oli, Ordas, Dominiguez, Lares, and Tapia, besides other officers and soldiers who had no horses, but whose names I will not mention: even several of Narvaez's men fought bravely on this occasion. It was, however, Juan de Salamanca, of Ontiveros, who gave the Mexican general the finishing stroke, and tore away the splendid penache from his head, which he presented to Cortes. How dangerous was not our position in Iztapalapan? Near Xochimilco the Mexicans had already dragged him from his horse; and had it not been for our Tlascallan auxiliaries, and the brave Christobal de Olea, of Old Castile, he would have been carried off by the enemy. In that unfortunate combat on the causeway, where sixty-two of our men were taken prisoners and sacrificed to the Mexican gods, the enemy had already laid hands on our general and wounded him in the foot; but in that perilous moment it again pleased the Almighty that Olea should come up to his rescue, assist him on horseback, and thus save him from a horrible death. But, alas! this heroic deed cost Olea his own life; and now even, while I am writing this, the figure and powerful build of Christobal de Olea comes fresh to my memory, and my heart feels sore with grief, for we were both born in the same spot, and he was a relative of my relations. I will not, however, relate the further heroic deeds of the marquis del Valle, for they are so numerous and astonishing that I should not so soon get to the end of them. I will now show a few of his peculiarities.
He was excessively fond of gambling at cards and dice, but he never lost his temper in playing, and he delighted in using those quaint expressions customary with gamblers. Nothing could exceed his vigilance during war, and in the night-time he would make the rounds himself, and visit the different outposts. He would visit the hut of every soldier, see that his weapons were ready at hand, and that he had his shoes on. Those whom he found had neglected anything in this way he severely reprimanded, and compared them to mangy sheep whose own wool is too heavy for them. During our expedition to the Honduras, he had a peculiar infirmity about him which I never observed previously, which was, that if he could not get some little nap after dinner he became so ill that he vomited up everything he had eaten. We therefore took the precaution as soon as he had dined to spread a carpet for him beneath some tree or elsewhere in the shade, on which he took a short repose; it mattered not whether it was oppressively hot, or that the rain came down in torrents, it made no difference to him. During the conquest of New Spain he was very thin, and had scarcely any embonpoint; but after our return from the Honduras he became excessively fat and big-bellied. When his beard was beginning to grow grey, he used to dye it black. In New Spain and on his first return to Castile he was uncommonly generous; but on his second return thither in the year 1540, he was considered very miserly, and one of his servants, named Ulloa, actually brought an action against him for non-payment of wages. If we consider his life after the conquest of New Spain, we shall find that it was full of troubles and sorrows. The armaments which he fitted out cost him immense sums of money, from which he never derived any advantage. Both his expedition to the Honduras and to California proved very unsatisfactory. I hope, however, that he may meet with his reward in heaven, and I have every reason to think he will, because he was an honest cavalier, and a devoted reverer of the blessed Virgin, of the holy apostle St. Peter, and of other saints. May the Almighty pardon his sins, and mine also; and may he also grant me a happy death, for this is of more importance than all our conquests and victories over the Indians.