78 ADVENTURERS PRIESTS INDIAN ALLIES. 



not choose to leave hereditary homes and comfortable emoluments 

 which made those homes the permanent abodes of contentment if 

 not of luxury. But there were others in the dense crowds of 

 Spain whose habits, disposition and education, fostered in them all 

 the love of ease and elegance, without bestowing the means 

 of gratifying their desires. These men regarded the New 

 World as a short and easy road to opulence and distinction. 

 There were others too, whose reckless or dissipated habits had 

 wasted their fortunes and blasted their names in their native 

 towns, and who could not bear to look upon the scenes of their 

 youth, or the companions of their more fortunate days, whilst 

 poverty and disgrace deprived them of the rights of free and equal 

 social intercourse. These were the poor and proud; — the noisy 

 and the riotous; — the soldier, half bandit, half warrior; — the 

 sailor, half mutineer, half pirate ; — the zealot whose bigotry mag- 

 nified the dangers of Indian life into the glory of martyrdom; and 

 the avaricious man who dreamed that the very sands of the Indian 

 Isles were strewn with gems and gold. Among all this mass of 

 wayward lust and ambition, there were some lofty spirits whose 

 love of glory, whose passionate devotion to adventure, and whose 

 genuine anxiety to spread the true word of God among the infidels, 

 sanctified and adorned the enterprise, whilst their personal efforts 

 and influence were continually directed towards the noble purpose 

 of redeeming it from cruelty. These men recollected that pos- 

 terity would set its seal upon their deeds, whilst many of them 

 acted from a higher and purer Christian motive, devoid of all 

 that narrow selfishness with which others kept their eyes fixed on 

 the present and the future for the popular opinion that was to dis- 

 grace or dignify them on the pages of history. 



Such were the Spanish materials of the armies with which 

 Cortez invaded Mexico; and yet, even with all the masterly genius 

 he possessed to mould and lead such discordant elements, what 

 could he have substantially effected, against the Aztec Empire, 

 with his handful of men, — armed, mounted and equipped as they 

 were, — without his Indian allies ? These he had to conquer, to 

 win, to control, to bind to him, forever, with the chains of an in- 

 destructible loyalty. He did not even know their language, but 

 relied on the double interpretation of an Indian girl and a Spanish 

 soldier. Nor is it less remarkable that he not only gained these 

 allies, but preserved their fealty, not in success alone, but under 

 the most disheartening disaster, when it was really their interest to 



