202 THE HOESE OF AMERICA. 



except so much of it as relates to the introduction of the horse to 

 the continent of North America, it will require but small space 

 to tell it. Cortez sailed from Cuba for Yucatan, Feburary, 1519, 

 with an army of six hundred and sixty-three men, two hundred 

 Indians and sixteen horses. This wholly inadequate supply of 

 cavalry was the weak place in his venture, but the horses could 

 not be had in Cuba, without paying an incredible price. Those 

 he was able to secure cost from four to five hundred pesos de oro 

 each. The peso was the Spanish dollar. The expedition was 

 nominally fitted out for Yucatan, but its real aim was the heart 

 of Mexico. In his first fight with the Indians near the coast, 

 men mounted on horses were feared by the natives as monstrous 

 apparitions. This overwhelming fear of the horse may seem to 

 some of my readers as overdone by the historian, but it seems to 

 have been the common experience of all the different nations and 

 tribes of Indians wherever the horse made his first appearance in 

 battle. In the first battle two of the horses were killed, and in 

 the second another was killed, and all that remained were more 

 or less severely wounded. Cortez was afterward joined by Alva- 

 rado, at VeraCruz, with twenty horses and one hundred and fifty 

 men. In making his official reports directly to the home govern- 

 ment in Spain instead of the governor of Cuba, Cortez gave mor- 

 tal offense to that dignitary, and he sent out an armada under 

 Karvaez to supersede Cortez and return him in chains to Cuba. 

 This armada consisted of eighteen vessels, carrying nine hundred 

 men, eighty of whom were cavalry. After some diplomacy, 

 Cortez, feeling that with his little handful of men he was wholly 

 unable to meet Narvaez, he did all he could to avoid a conflict. 

 Each party knew the exact strength of the other, and as Narvaez 

 began to threaten, Cortez determined to fight for his rights and 

 his liberty. He then had but five men mounted, but he took ad- 

 vantage of the carelessness of his adversary, made a night attack 

 in the midst of a tempest, and captured Narvaez and his whole 

 army. The private soldiers of that day, like their commanders, 

 had no idea or principle to right for except for plunder, and they 

 were always ready to attach themselves to the most successful 

 robber. Cortez was their ideal leader, and at once he had a new 

 army of devoted followers. He then had eighty-five mounted 

 men, and he felt strong enough to hold and rule the great coun- 

 try he had conquered. Mexico was conquered in 152 1, .and the 

 news of the vast amount of treasure captured brought a great 



