MATERIALS OF THE CONQUEST. 



77 



not allow him to sleep for a moment on his post, or to tamper 

 with the elements upon which he relied for success. In all this 

 time he made but few mistakes. The loss of the capital during 

 the first visit is not to be attributed to him. The stain of that 

 calamity must rest forever upon the escutcheon of Alvarado, 

 for the irreparable harm was already done when Cortez returned 

 from the subjugation of Narvaez. 



Nor is it alone as a soldier, at this time, that we are called on 

 to appreciate the talents of our hero. Whilst he planned, fought, 

 travelled, retreated, and diplomatised, he kept an accurate account 

 of the adventures of his troop ; and, in his celebrated letters to 

 the Emperor, he has presented us a series of military memoirs, 

 which, after three hundred years, furnish, in reality, the best, but 

 least pretending, narrative of the conquest. Other contemporaries, 

 looking upon the scenes from a variety of points, may serve to add 

 interesting details and more copious illustration to the story; but 

 they support without diminishing thev value and truth of the 

 despatches of Cortez. 



The conqueror, in truth, was one of those men whose minds 

 seem to reach results intuitively. Education often ripens genius, 

 as the genial sun and air mature the fruits of the earth which 

 would languish without them. But we sometimes find individuals 

 whose dealings on earth are to be chiefly in energetic and constant 

 action with their fellow creatures, and who are gifted with a finer 

 tact which enables them to penetrate the hearts of all they 

 approach, and by this skilful detection of character are empowered 

 to mould them to their purposes. There are, it is true, many 

 subordinate qualities, besides the mere perceptive faculties, that 

 are needful in such a person. He must possess self-control and dis- 

 crimination in a remarkable degree. His courage and self-reliance 

 must be unquestionable. He must be able to win by gentleness 

 as well as to control by command or to rule by stratagem ; for 

 there are persons whom neither kindness, reason nor authority can 

 lead, but who are nevertheless too important to be disregarded in 

 such an enterprise as that of the conquest of Mexico. 



Nor is our admiration of the characteristics we have endeavored 

 to sketch, diminished when we examine the elements of the ori- 

 ginal army that flocked to the standard of Cortez. The Spanish 

 court and camps, — the Spanish towns and sea-ports, — had sent 

 forth a motley band to the islands. The sedate and worthier por- 

 tions of Castilian society were not wooed abroad by the alluring 

 accounts of the New World and its prolific wealth. They did 



