CHAPTEK II. 

 1519. 



OLMEDO PREACHES TO THE INDIANS. AGUILAR AND MARIANA-^- 



INTERPRETERS. CORTEZ LANDS INTERVIEW WITH THE AZ- 

 TECS. — diplomacy — montezuma's presents. — montezuma 



REFUSES TO RECEIVE CORTEZ. 



Soon after the adventurers departed from the coast of Cuba, the 

 weather, which had been hitherto fine, suddenly changed, and one 

 of those violent hurricanes which ravage the Indian Isles during 

 the warm season, scattered and dismantled the small squadron, 

 sweeping it far to the south of its original destination. Cortez 

 was the last to reach the Island of Cozumel, having been forced 

 to linger in order to watch for the safety of one of his battered 

 craft. But, immediately on landing, he was pained to learn that 

 the impetuous Pedro de Alvarado had rashly entered the 

 temples, despoiled them of their ornaments, and terrified the 

 natives into promiscuous flight. He immediately devoted himself 

 to the task of obliterating this stain on Spanish humanity, by 

 kindly releasing two of the captives taken by Alvarado. Through 

 an interpreter he satisfied them of the pacific purpose of his voyage, 

 and despatched them to their homes with valuable gifts. This 

 humane policy appears to have succeeded with the natives, who 

 speedily returned from the interior, and commenced a brisk traffic 

 of gold for trinkets. 



The chief objection of Cortez to the headlong destruction which 

 Alvarado had committed in the temples, seems rather to have been 

 against the robbery than the religious motive, if such existed in the 

 breast of his impetuous companion. We have already said that 

 the conversion of the heathen was one of the alleged primary 

 objects of this expedition, for the instructions of the Governor 

 of Cuba were full of zeal for the spread of Christianity ; yet, in 

 the diffusion of this novel creed among the aborigines, it sometimes 

 happened that its military propagandists regarded the sword as 



