BOOK I. 



CHAPTER I. 

 1511 to 1519. 



DISCOVERIES OF CORDOVA AND GRIJALVA. CORTEZ APPOINTED 



BY VELASQUEZ. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF CORTEZ. COR- 

 TEZ CAPTAIN GENERAL OF THE ARMADA. EQUIPMENT OF 



THE EXPEDITION. QUARREL OF VELASQUEZ FIRMNESS OF 



CORTEZ. EXPEDITION DEPARTS UNDER CORTEZ. 



There is perhaps no page in modern history so full of dramatic 

 incidents and useful consequences, as that which records the dis- 

 covery, conquest and development of America by the Spanish and 

 Anglo Saxon races. The extraordinary achievements of Columbus, 

 Cortez, Pizarro, and Washington, have resulted in the acquisition 

 of broad lands, immense wealth, and rational liberty; and the 

 names of these heroes are thus indissolubly connected with the 

 physical and intellectual progress of mankind. 



In the following pages we propose to write the history, and 

 depict the manners, customs and condition of Mexico. Our 

 narrative begins with the first movements that were made for 

 the conquest of the country ; yet, we shall recount, fully and 

 accurately, the story of those Indian princes, — the splendor of 

 whose courts, and the misery of whose tragic doom, enhance the 

 picturesque grandeur and solemn lessons that are exhibited in 

 the career of Hernando Cortez. 



