CORTES 



relief, ami reached the city, 24th June 1520. ll> 

 found himself face to face with a whole nation in 

 arnm under Monie/uinu's brother OM popular leader. 

 A general attack was soon made upon him, and 

 iini i >) in Ked without a desperate struggle. On the 

 third (lay the unhappy Monte/urna appeared on a 

 battlement with the view of pacifying his people, 

 hut was wounded l>y a shower of stones an in- 

 dignity wliirh lroke liis heart. Cortes burned the 

 two great idols of the city, but this did not terrify 

 the Mexicans, and he now saw that he must leave 

 the city. His dispositions were quickly made ; the 

 start was made at midnight, 1st July 1520. The 

 first hridge was crossed safely by a pontoon which 

 he hail prepared for this purpose, but at once the 

 lake was covered with a multitude of canoes, and 

 s furious an attack made that it proved impossible 

 to raise the pontoon to cross the second bridge. 

 Soon the water was choked with a crowd of strug- 

 gling horses and men, and the retreat became a 

 confused and hopeless rout. The second and third 

 bridgeways were both broken down, but it was at 

 the third that the greatest loss occurred. In the 

 horrors of that awful night (la noche triste) were 

 lost 450 Spaniards, forty-six horses, his artillery, 

 4000 Indian allies, and most of the Mexican 

 prisoners. At Oturnba, whither the miserable hand- 

 ful of survivors had retreated, Cortes found himself 

 encompassed with an innumerable host, and there 

 was a desperate battle, in which every individual 

 Spaniard performed prodigies of valour. The 

 exhausted victors were kindly received by their 

 Tlascalan allies, and Cortes at once began prepara- 

 tions to repair his disaster. 



On the 26th December 1520 Cortes reviewed his 

 troops. He had still 550 foot-soldiers, with forty 

 horsemen, and eight or nine cannon. Taking with 

 him 10,000 Tlascalans he marched to Te/cuco, and 

 contrived to form alliances with some of the sur- 

 rounding Indian tribes. At length his brigantines, 

 built at Tlascala, arrived, earned by a host of 

 Tlascalans ; and, after a perilous expedition round 

 the lake, and many ineffectual attempts to come to 

 terms with the Mexicans, he began the formal siege 

 of the city. He himself, with three hundred men, 

 took command of the brigantines, as, in his own 

 words, ' the key of the whole war was in the ships.' 

 After defeating the Mexicans on the lakes, and 

 destroying innumerable canoes, he made a series of 

 simultaneous incursions along the causeways. The 

 Mexicans fought with the fury of despair, and the 

 t riu in | >li of the Spaniards proceeded only at the cost 

 of the gradual destruction of the buildings in the 

 city. Meantime the Spaniards themselves suffered 

 desperate hardships from the ambuscades of their 

 sleepless enemy, arid becoming impatient, they de- 

 manded a general attack, in which they suffered a 

 severe repulse. Although famine and pestilence 

 fought for the Spaniards as many as fifty thou- 

 sand Mexicans dying of these during the siege 

 the city had to be destroyed before it could be 

 taken. It fell at length, 13th August 1521, after a 

 siege of seventy-five days, hardly to be surpassed 

 in the history of the world for obstinacy and valour. 

 Scarce any booty was obtained, the ruined houses 

 were filled with heaps of dead, and almost the 

 entire city had to be rebuilt. 



Cortes now showed his wisdom bv attempting 

 to restore the native institutions. He rewarded 

 his men with encomicndas or grants of Indians 

 for labour and assistance in colonisation. He was 

 formally appointed governor and captain -general of 

 New Spain in 1522. He next sent out Alvarado on 

 an expedition which led ultimately to the conquest 

 of ( hiatemala, Sandoval to the north, and Christoval 

 de Olid to Honduras. The last, unfaithful to his 

 trust, rebelled, and the indefatigable Cortes at once 

 set out on a perilous journey to subdue him ; but 



CORUNA 



499 



finding his rebellious lieutenant assassinated before 

 IIIN arrival, he returned to New Spain ( 1.V2G) to lind 

 Ponce de Leon invested with the pow.-i> of govern- 

 ment. In May 1528 he arrived in Spain, was re- 

 ceived with marked honour by the king, and created 

 Marquis del Valle de Guaxaca. He returned in 

 July 1530 as captain-general, but to his di-a ppoint - 

 ment was not apjKmited also civil governor of New 

 Spain. He was poor and broken in health, and 

 henceforward had the continual mortification to see 

 the government muddled by envious and incom 

 petent men. During ten years he was constantly 

 engaged in making new discoveries to the north of 

 Mexico, but now, says Bernal Diaz, 'everything 

 turned to thorns witn him;' and in 1540 he re- 

 turned to Spain. He accompanied the emperor 

 in his unhappy expedition to Algeria, and was 

 mortified by having his offer to take Algiers, if 

 given the command, slighted and despised. Vol- 

 taire's story of his proud speech to the emperor as 

 he stood on the step of his carriage : ' I am a man 

 who has given you more provinces than your 

 ancestors nave left you cities,' is true in spirit, 

 if not in fact. Cortes wished to return to Mexico, 

 but was not allowed till his impending suits were 

 settled. His last years were darkened by neglect, 

 deepened by the domestic vexation of his daughter 

 Donna Maria's repudiation by a great Spanish noble 

 to whom she had l>een betrothed. He went to 

 meet her at Seville, fell ill, and died in a small 

 village near that city, 2d December 1547. His Ixxly 

 was first buried at Seville, afterwards at Tezcuco, 

 and lastly ( 1629 ) in Mexico. 



The great conquest of Cortes ranks as one of the 

 most splendid achievements in the world's history, 

 and indeed it is more like romantic fable than 

 sober fact. Its hero was no common adventurer or 

 mere courageous soldier, but a captain of admirable 

 sagacity and resource, a statesman of rare penetra- 

 tion and foresight. To the reckless audacity of a 

 Rupert he added the astuteness of a Hannibal a 

 combination that marks only the highest order of 

 military genius. His whole character was con- 

 structed on heroic lines, and is marked with a 

 certain conspicuous grandeur throughout. He was 

 passionate, yet patient ; fond of splendour, yet 

 simple in diet ; cruel sometimes, yet sincerely 

 religious ; silent and reserved, yet capable of in- 

 spiring the most devoted as well as the tenderest 

 personal affection. In many things he resembles 

 Ca?sar, and like him he possessed that rarest power 

 of knowing, as De Solis says of him, ' how to be a 

 superior without ceasing to be a comrade." See 

 Prescott's History, and the admirable Life by Sir 

 Arthur Helps (2 vols. 1871). 



Cortona (Lat. Crototut), a town of Central 

 Italy, 69 miles SE. of Florence by rail. It stands 

 2130 feet above sea-level, looking down on the 

 Valle di Chiana and the Trasimene Lake, and is 

 one of the oldest cities in Europe, with mighty 

 cyclopean walls of Pelasgic origin, Etniscan and 

 Roman remains, numerous handsome palazzi, a 

 fine cathedral, and half a dozen churches. These 

 are rich in paintings by many old masters, includ- 

 ing Luca Signorelh (q.v.) and Pietro Berrettini or 

 da Cortona (1596-1669). The Accademia Etrusca 

 (1726) has its seat here; its museum contains a 

 multitude of Etruscan sarcophagi, vases, &c. Pop. 

 3605. 



4'oriliia. LA (ordinarily in English, Corunna; 

 among seamen, Groyne), a fortified seaport of 

 Spain, and capital of a province of the same name, 

 situated about midway between cape* Ortega! 

 and Finisterre, on a peninsula in the Bay (ria) of 

 Coruna, 263 miles NW. of Leon by rail. The 

 town divides itself naturally into the upper portion 

 and the lower, called Pescaderia, which, formerly 



