EQUIPMENT OF THE EXPEDITION. 



19 



was rekindled in the breast of the wild boy of Medellin, and when 

 the Governor looked around for one who could command the 

 projected expedition, he found none, among the hosts who pressed 

 for service, better fitted for the enterprise by personal qualities 

 and fortune, than Hernando Cortez, whom he named Captain 

 General of his Armada. 



The, high office and the important task imposed on him seem 

 to have sobered the excitable, and heretofore fickle, mind of our 

 hero. His ardent animal spirits, under the influence of a bold 

 and lofty purpose, became the servants rather than the masters 

 of his indomitable will, and he at once proceeded to arrange all 

 the details of the expedition which he was to lead to Mexico. 

 The means that he did not already possess in his own coffers, he 

 raised by mortgage, and he applied the funds, thus obtained, to 

 the purchase of vessels, rations, and military stores, or to the 

 furnishing of adequate equipments for adventurers who were too 

 poor to provide their own outfit. 7 "' It is somewhat questionable 

 whether Velasquez, the Governor, was very liberal in his personal 

 and pecuniary contributions to this expedition, the cost of which 

 amounted to about twenty thousand gold ducats. It has been 

 alleged that Cortez was the chief support of the adventure, and 

 it is certain, that in later years, this question resulted in bitter 

 litigation between the parties. 



Six ships and three hundred followers were soon prepared for 

 the enterprise under Cortez, and the Governor proceeded to give 

 instructions to the leader, all of which are couched in language of 

 unquestionable liberality. 



The captain of the Armada was first to seek the missing Grijalva, 

 after which the two commanders were to unite in their quest of 

 gold and adventure. Six Christians, supposed to be lingering in 

 captivity in Yucatan, were to be sought and released. Barter and 

 traffic, generally, with the natives were to be encouraged and 

 carried on, so as to avoid all offence against humanity or kindness 

 The Indians were to be christianized; — for the conversion of 

 heathens was one of the dearest objects of the Spanish king. 

 The aborigines, in turn, were to manifest their good will by ample 

 gifts of jewels and treasure. The coasts and adjacent streams 

 were to be surveyed, — and the productions of the country, its 

 races, civilization, and institutions, were to be noted with minute 

 accuracy, so that a faithful report might be returned to the crown, 



