THE STOEY OF DIEGO OIIDAZ. 299 



of Popocatepetl ; the army suffered both from the cold, 

 and the extreme impetuosity of the winds, which con- 

 stantly prevail on the table-land. Writing of this march 

 to the Emperor, Cortez expresses himself in the follow- 

 ing manner : ' Seeing smoke issue from a very elevated 

 mountain, and wishing to make to your royal excellency 

 a minute report of whatever this country contains of 

 wonderful, I chose from among my companions in arms, 

 ten of the most courageous, and I ordered them to ascend 

 to the summit, and to discover the secret of the smoke, 

 and to tell me whence and where it issued.' 



" Bernal Diaz af&rms that Diego Ordaz was of that 

 expedition, and that this captain attained the very brink 

 of the crater. He may have happened to boast of it 

 afterwards, for it is related by other historians, that the 

 Emperor gave him permission to place a volcano on his 

 arms. Lopez de Gomara, who composed his history 

 from the accounts of the Conquistadores and religious 

 missionaries, does not name Ordaz as the chief of the 

 expedition ; but he vaguely asserts that two Spaniards 

 measured with the eye the size of the crater. Cortez, 

 however, expressly says : ' That his people ascended very 

 high ; that they saw much smoke issue out, but that none 

 of them could reach the volcano, on account of the enor- 

 mous quantity of snow with which it was covered, the 

 rigour of the cold, and the clouds of ashes that enveloped 

 the travellers.' A terrible noise w^hich they heard on 

 approaching the summit determined them to turn im- 

 mediately back. We see from the account of Cortez, 

 that the expedition of Ordaz had no view of extracting 

 sulphur from the volcano, and that neither he nor his 

 companions saw the crater in 1519. ' They brought 



