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.
FOOTNOTES
[54] Indeed, to make the miracle perfect in all its details, a little warping of the facts is perhaps allowable. So when the zealous chroniclers bring into the world the same year, the same day, even the self-same hour, these two great champions for the souls of men, we should not be too critical, though in truth there were two years difference in their ages. ‘Y así, no carece de misterio que el mismo año que Lutero nació en Islebio,’ that is to say Eisleben, ‘villa de Sajonia, nació Hernando Cortés en Medellin, villa de España; aquel para turbar el mundo y meter debajo de la bandera del demonio a muchos de los fieles que de padres y abuelos y muchos tiempos atras eran católicos, y este para traer al gremio de la Iglesia infinita multitud de gentes que por años sin cuento habian estado debajo del poder de Satanás envueltos en vicios y ciegos con la idolatría.’ Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 174-5. Pizarro y Orellana will not be outdone by any one in zeal or mendacity. ‘Nació este Ilustre Varon el dia mismo que aquella bestia infernal, el Perfido Heresiarca Lutero, salió al mundo.’ Varones Ilvstres, 66. Bernal Diaz is the first authority on the question of age. ‘En el año que passamos con Cortés dende Cuba,’ he writes Hist. Verdad., 238, ‘a la Nueva España, fue el de quinientos y diez y nueue años, y entonces solia dezir estando en conversacion de todos nosotros los compañeros que con él passamos, que auia treynta y quatro años, y veynte y ocho que auian passado hasta que murio, que son sesenta y dos años.’ While agreeing with Bernal Diaz in the date of Cortés’ death, December 2, 1547, Gomara says he was then sixty-three. From his false premise Mendieta elaborates a comparison between Luther and Cortés, dwelling with pious pathos on the holocaust of human victims offered up at the consecration of the great Aztec temple at Mexico, which deed, he coolly states, was committed on the day Cortés was born. For the facts, see Bancroft’s Native Races, v. 5, 439-40. Without taking the trouble to test Mendieta’s statement, Torquemada, i. 340-1, carries the miraculous still further. Following the heaven-descended Cortés in his piratical raid on Mexico, he sees the hand of God in the finding of Aguilar, who, like Aaron, was to be the mouthpiece of his chief, in the alliances with native states, and in the great victories and hair-breadth escapes of the conqueror, fighting under the banner of the cross.
[55] According to the Testimonio de Hidalguia de Cortés, in Col. Doc. Inéd., iv. 238-9, the names of the mother’s parents were Diego Altamirano and Leonor Sanchez Pizarro, which would reverse her surnames, and make the son a Cortés y Altamirano. But Gomara, De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, and other authorities, do not accept this form. This important document, however, the Testimonio, establishes the fact that both parents were hidalgos, ‘gozando de los oficios que gozan los hijosdalgo en ... Medellin.’ Some historians strain themselves to make Cortés the scion of a Roman family, or even of a king of Lombardy and Tuscany, whose descendants entered Spain during Gothic rule. Those who have tastes in that direction may consult Siculus, Viris Illust., 141; Anales de Aragon, iii. xiv.; Pizarro y Orellana, Varones Ilvstres, 67. Las Casas, Hist. Ind., iv. 11, who claimed acquaintance with the family, slurs their pretensions to high origin. ‘Ambos hijosdalgo sin raça’ is the qualification in Sandoval, Hist. Carlos V., i. 160. No doubt the parents of Cortés were respectable and amiable people, but to attempt to make of them other than they were is folly. ‘Catharinia namque probitate, pudicitiâ et in conjugem amore, nulli ætatis suae feminae cessit.’ De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 310-11. This document refers to Martin Cortés as ‘levis armaturae equitum quinquaginta dux fuerit,’ on which evidence Prescott makes the man a captain when he is only a lieutenant, which yet more clearly appears by Gomara, who states, Hist. Mex., 4, that he was a ‘teniente de vna compañia de Ginetes.’
[56] The nurse was a ‘vezina de Oliua,’ and her method of choosing a patron was characteristic of the times. ‘La deuocion fue echar en suertes los doze apostoles, y darle por auogado el postrero q̄ ssliesse, y salio san Pedro. En cuyo nõbre se dixeron ciertas missas y oraciones, con las quales plugo a Dios q̄ sanasse.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 4.
[57] And Pizarro y Orellana, Varones Ilvstres, 66-69, indulges in a lengthy dissertation upon the effect of mothers’ milk on heroes. ‘Criole a sus pechos Doña Catalina Pizarro su madre: y a la generosidad deste lacticinio atribuye Marineo e Siculo su gran valor, y virtud.’
[58] Pizarro y Orellana, Varones Ilvstres, 67, states that he was supported at college by Monroy and Rodriguez. It is possible that his proud spirit chafed under this dependence, or that he felt too deeply his position as a poor student among the wealthy youth there congregated; or that this aid was withdrawn owing to the turbulent character here developed by the young man. These views find support in Gomara, Hist. Mex., 4: ‘Boluiose a Medellin, harto o arrepentido de estudiar, o quiça falto de dineros.’ While admitting the want both of money and inclination for study, Torquemada, i. 345, states that a quartan fever came on as he was preparing for the study of law, and was the chief cause of his leaving the college. Las Casas, Hist. Ind., iv. 11, gives him the honors of a bachiller, and as having studied law, both of which statements are unlikely, considering his short course. ‘Aprendiendo gramática’ implies a course of study in Latin and Greek, as well as rhetoric, which it required three years to complete. Plan de Estudios de la Universidad de Salamanca, quoted by Folsom, in Cortés’ Despatches, 10. According to Peralta, ‘asento con un escribano, ... y aprendió á escrebir,’ etc. in Valladolid. Not. Hist., 56.
[59] Verses which were tolerably good, and even procured him some fame. Anales, 220. ‘Quando hablaua con Letrados, y hombres Latinos, respondia á lo que le dezian en Latin.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 238. The combined qualities of scholar and general have called up a not inappropriate comparison between Cortés and Cæsar. See Helps’ Span. Conq., and other authorities.
[60] Some claim him for a relative of Cortés. See Pizarro y Orellana, Varones Ilvstres, 70; Solis, Hist. Mex., i. 45; De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 312.