76 



CHARACTER AND DEEDS OF CORTEZ. 



the briefest summary of the enterprise, to pass from the topic 

 without awarding to the moving spirit of the romantic drama the 

 fair estimate which his character and deeds demand. 



We have ever regarded Hernando Cortez as the great con- 

 troling spirit and embodiment of the conquest, regardless of 

 the brilliant and able men who were grouped around him, 

 all of whom, tempered and regulated by his genius, moved the 

 military machine, step by step, and act by act, until the capital fell 

 before the united armies of discontented Indians and invading 

 Spaniards. It was in the mind of this remarkable personage that 

 every scheme appears to have originated and ripened. This is the 

 report of the most authentic contemporaries. He took counsel, it 

 is true, of his captains, and heard the reports of Sandoval, Olid, 

 and Alvarado ; but whenever a great enterprise, in all the wonder- 

 ful and varied combinations of this adventure, was to be carried 

 into successful execution, it was Cortez himself who planned it, 

 placed himself at its head, and fought in its midst. The rash 

 youth whom we saw either idling over his tasks at school, or a 

 reckless stripling as he advanced in life, seems to have mellowed 

 suddenly into greatness under the glow of Indian suns which 

 would have emasculated a character of less rude or nervous 

 strength. As soon as a project, worthy of the real power of his 

 genius, presented itself to his mind and opened to his grasp, he 

 became a sobered, steadfast, serious, discreet man. He was at 

 once isolated by his superiority, and contrived to retain, by his 

 wisdom in command, the superiority which was so perfectly mani- 

 fested by this isolation. This alone, was no trifling task. His 

 natural adroitness not only taught him quickly the value of every 

 man in his command, but also rendered keener the tact by which 

 he strove to use those men when their talents, for good or evil, 

 were once completely ascertained. There were jealousies of 

 Cortez, but no rivalries. Men from the ranks conspired to dis- 

 place him, but no leader ever ventured, or perhaps even conceived 

 the idea, whilst under his orders, of superceding the hero of the 

 Mexican conquest. The skill with which he won the loyal heart 

 of that clever Indian girl — his mistress and companion through 

 all the warfare, — discloses to us his power of attaching a sex 

 which is always quickest to detect merit and readiest to discard 

 conceit. We speak now of Cortez during that period of his 

 career when he was essentially the soul of the conquest, and in 

 which the stern demands of war upon his intellect and heart, did 



