Columbus prosecuted, down to the close of life, the great work of discovery to which, as he never ceased to feel, God had set him apart. He occupied himself almost entirely among those lovely islands to which Providence had guided his uncertain way; seeing almost nothing of the vast continents, on the right hand and on the left, which he had gained for the use of civilized man. Once, near the island of Trinidad, he was suffered to look for the only time upon the glorious mainland, so lavishly endowed with beauty and with wealth. Once again he sailed along the coasts of the isthmus and landed upon its soil. But he scarcely passed, in his researches, beyond the multitudinous islands which lay around him on every side. He sailed among them with a heart full, at the outset, of deep, solemn joy, over the unparalleled victory which had been vouchsafed to him; full, towards the close, with a bitter sense of ingratitude and perfidy. He had made his first landing on the little island of San Salvador. Voyaging thence he quickly found Cuba, “the most beautiful island that eyes ever beheld, full of excellent ports and profound rivers.” Then he discovered Hispaniola and Jamaica, and a multitude of smaller islands. Thirteen years of life were still left to him, and Columbus was content to expend them among the sights and sounds which had caressed his delighted senses at his first coming into this enchanted world.
But there were other adventurers, allured by the success which had crowned the efforts of Columbus, and hastening now to widen the scope of his inquiry. Five years from the first landing of Columbus, John Cabot had explored the northern continent from Labrador to Florida. Many navigators who had sailed with Columbus in his early voyages now fitted out small expeditions, in order to make fresh discoveries on the southern continent. Successive adventurers traversed its entire northern coasts. One discovered the great River of the Amazons; another passed southwards along the coasts of Brazil. Before the century closed, almost the whole of the northern and eastern shores of South America had been visited and explored.
Ten or twelve years after Columbus had discovered the mainland, there was a Spanish settlement at the town of Darien on the isthmus. Prominent among the adventurers who prosecuted, from this centre of operations, the Spaniard’s eager and ruthless search for gold was Vasco Nuñez de Balboa—a man cruel and unscrupulous as the others, but giving evidence of wider views and larger powers of mind than almost any of his fellows. Vasco Nuñez visited one day a friendly chief, from whom he received in gift a large amount of gold. The Spaniards had certain rules which guided them in the distribution of the spoils, but in the application of these rules disputes continually fell out. It so happened on this occasion that a noisy altercation arose. A young Indian prince, regarding with unconcealed contempt the clamour of the greedy strangers, told them that, since they prized gold so highly, he would show them a country where they might have it in abundance. Southward, beyond the mountains, was a great sea; on the coasts of that sea there was a land of vast wealth, where the people ate and drank from vessels of gold. This was the first intimation which Europeans received of the Pacific Ocean and the land of Peru on the western shore of the continent. Vasco Nuñez resolved to be the discoverer of that unknown sea. Among his followers was Francisco Pizarro, who became, a few years later, the discoverer and destroyer of Peru.
1513 A.D. Vasco Nuñez gathered about two hundred well-armed men, and a number of dogs, who were potent allies in his Indian wars. He climbed with much toil the mountain ridge which traverses the isthmus. After twenty-five days of difficult journeying, his Indians told him that he was almost in view of the ocean. He chose that he should look for the first time on that great sight alone. Sept. 25. He made his men remain behind, while he, unattended, looked down upon the Sea of the South, and drank the delight of this memorable success. Upon his knees he gave thanks to God, and joined with his followers in devoutly singing the Te Deum. He made his way down to the coast. Wading into the tranquil waters, he called his men to witness that he took possession for the Kings of Castile of the sea and all that it contained—a large claim, assuredly, for the Pacific covers more than one-half the surface of the globe.
Many of the adventurers realized large gains in gold and pearls, from their trading with the natives. But the hunger of the Spaniards for gold was still utterly unsatisfied. No considerable quantity of gold had been found in the islands; but the constant report of the natives pointed to regions in the interior where the precious metals abounded. On the mainland, beside the Gulf of Paria, the early voyagers were able to obtain more ample supplies. When Columbus explored the Mosquito country and Costa Rica, he found the natives in possession of massive ornaments of gold, on which they did not seem to place very special value. Still the natives spoke of a country far away among the mountains where gold and precious stones were profusely abundant. The Spaniards continued to advance in the direction to which these rumours pointed. As they approached the northern portions of Central America, evidences of higher civilization and greater wealth multiplied around them. The natives lived in houses solidly built of stone and lime, their temples were highly ornamented, the soil was more carefully cultivated here than elsewhere; above all, there was much gold, which could be obtained in exchange for the worthless trinkets offered by the strangers. 1518 A.D. At length the Spaniards arrived on the borders of Mexico, and held intercourse with the chief who ruled over the region to which they had come.
When the Spanish Governor of Cuba heard of the tempting wealth of Mexico, he determined to send out an expedition sufficiently strong to effect the conquest of the country. Hernando Cortes, then a young man of thirty-three, was intrusted with the guidance of this arduous enterprise. Cortes was a man of middle height and slender figure, with pale complexion and large dark eyes; of grave aspect, and with an air of command which secured prompt obedience; of resolution which no danger could shake; inexhaustibly fertile of resource, and eminently fitted, therefore, to lead men who were about to encounter unknown perils. Cortes having placed his fleet under the protection of St. Peter, and having kindled the enthusiasm of his men by assurances of glory and wealth and divine favour, sailed for the coast of Yucatan. Feb 18, 1519 A.D. His forces numbered seven hundred Europeans and two hundred Indians. He had fourteen pieces of artillery. His enemies had not yet seen the horse, and Cortes sought anxiously to have the means of overawing them by the sudden attack of cavalry. But horses were scarce, for they had still to be brought from Europe; and only sixteen mounted men rode in his ranks. These diminutive forces were embarked in eleven little ships, the largest of which did not exceed one hundred tons burden.
Cortes disembarked his army on a wide sandy plain where now stands the city of Vera Cruz, the chief sea-port of Mexico. He was within rather less than two hundred miles of the capital of the country, and he sent to demand access to the presence of the King. Pictures, which represented the ships and the cannon and the horses of the Spaniards, had been forwarded to Montezuma, who pondered with his councillors those symbols of mysterious and terrible power. The council failed to ascertain the true character of the strangers, and remained in doubt whether they were supernatural beings or merely the envoys of some distant sovereign. Montezuma came to the conclusion that in any case they should be persuaded to depart and leave his country in peace. He sent an embassy to point out the dangers of the journey, and request his unwelcome visitors to return to their own land. But, by a fatal indiscretion, the ambassadors supported the King’s request by rich gifts:—a helmet filled to the brim with gold; two circular plates of gold and silver “as large as carriage-wheels;” a multitude of ornamental articles of costly material and beautiful workmanship. The greedy eyes of the Spaniards glistened with delight as the treasures of the simple monarch were spread before them. From that moment the ruin of Montezuma was sealed.
Cortes prepared for his advance upon the Mexican capital by destroying all the ships of his fleet with one solitary exception. There were faint hearts among his men, and fears which counselled early return to Cuba. Cortes had accepted for himself the alternative of success or utter ruin, and he purposed that his men should have no other. When the enfeebling possibility of escape was withdrawn, he roused their courage by appeals to the complex motives which swayed the Spaniards of that day. The desire to plant the cross on the temples of the heathen, the craving for glory and for gain, nerved the hearts of the warriors, who now, trusting to the skill of their leader and the protecting care of Divine Providence, went forth to the conquest of a great empire.
Their way led at first across plains sodden and rendered almost impassable by the summer rain. Aug. 16, 1519 A.D. Soon they left the plain and began to climb the long ascent of the Cordilleras, up towards the great table-land where the city of Mexico stands. They left, too, the warmth of the coast, and traversed a dreary mountain-region, swept by cold winds and tempests of sleet and snow. They passed under the shadow of volcanic mountains whose fires had been long extinguished; they looked down the sheer depths of dizzy precipices, and saw, far below, the luxuriant vegetation which a tropical heat drew forth. At length they came within the fertile and populous territory of the Tlascalans—a bold republican people who maintained with difficulty their independence against the superior strength of Montezuma. Cortes sought the alliance of this people; but they unwisely rejected his overtures and attacked his army. It was not till the close of two days of fighting that Cortes routed his assailants. The bold savages endured the dreaded attack of Spanish horsemen, the murderous discharge of Spanish artillery; they offered their defenceless bodies to the Spanish sword and lance, and were slaughtered in thousands, while their feeble arms scarcely harmed the invaders. The humbled Tlascalans hastened to conclude peace, and a great fear of the irresistible strangers spread far and wide among the population of the plateau. Montezuma once more sent large gifts of the gold which the Spaniards loved, and vainly begged them to forbear from coming to his capital.
Fifteen miles from Tlascala stood the city of Cholula, which Cortes now received an invitation to visit. Cortes found Cholula “a more beautiful city than any in Spain,” lying in a well-tilled plain, with many lofty towers, and with a dense population. Montezuma had enticed the Spaniards hither that he might destroy them; and to that end he had prepared an ambuscade of twenty thousand Mexican troops. But Cortes detected the plot, and having drawn a large assemblage of the chiefs and their followers into the great square, he gave the signal for an indiscriminate and unsparing massacre. The defenceless people fell in thousands; and Cortes, satisfied with the fearful lesson he had taught, erected an altar and cross, addressed the priests and chiefs on the excellences of the Christian religion, and resumed his advance on Mexico.