19O 81IIPWBECK OF COHTEZ. 



wore crowns of gold on their heads." " Catayo (China), 

 the empire of the Great Khan, and the mouth of the 

 Ganges," appeared to him so near, that he hoped soon to 

 employ two Arabian interpreters, whom he had embarked 

 at Cadiz, in going to Amenca. Other remembrances of the 

 island of Pinos, and the surrounding Gardens, are con- 

 nected with the conquest of Mexico. When Hernan Cortes 

 was preparing his great expedition, he was wrecked with 

 his Nave Capitana, on one of the flats of the Jardinillos. 

 For the space of five days he was believed to be lost, and 

 the valiant Pedro de Alvarado sent (in November, 1518,) 

 from the port of Carenas* (the Havannah) three vessels in 

 search of him. In February, 1519, Cortes assembled his 

 whole fleet near cape San Antonio, probably on the spot 

 which still bears the name of Ensenada de Cortes, west of 

 Batabano, and opposite to the island of Pinos. From thence, 

 believing he should better escape the snares laid for him by 

 the governor, Velasquez, he passed almost clandestinely to 

 the coast of Mexico. Strange vicissitude of events! the 

 empire of Montezuma was shaken by a handful of men who, 

 from the western extremity of the island of Cuba, landed on 

 the coast of Tucatan ; and in our days, three centuries 



terized by great simplicity, written by the discoverer of the New World : 

 " Your Highness," says Columbus, " may believe me, the globe of the 

 earth is far from being so great as the vulgar admit. I was seven years 

 at your royal court, and during seven years was told that my enterprise 

 was a folly. Now that I have opened the way, tailors and shoemakers 

 ask the privilege of going to discover new lands. Persecuted, forgotten 

 as I am, I never think of Hispaniola and Paria without my eyes being 

 filled with tears. I was twenty years in the service of your Highness ; I 

 have not a hair that is not white ; and my body is enfeebled. Heaven and 

 earth now mourn for me ; all who have pity, truth, and justice, mourn 

 for me (pianga adesso il cielo e pianga per me la terra ; pianga per me 

 chi ha carita, verita, giustizia)." Let. rar. pp. 13, 19, 34, 37. 



* At that period there were two settlements, one at Puerto de Carenas, 

 in the ancient Indian province of the Havannah, and the other the 

 most considerable in the Villa de San Cristoval de Cuba. These settle- 

 ments were only united in 1519, when the Puerto de Carenas took the 

 name of San Cristoval de la Habana. " Cortes," says Herrera, " paso 

 a la Villa de San Cristoval que a la sazon estaba en la costa del snr, j 

 despues se paso A la Habana." [Cortes proceeded to ths town of Saa 

 Cristoval, which at that time was on th* tea-coast, and afterwards h* 

 repaired to the Havannah.] 



