86 



HONDURAS GUATEMOZIN MARIANA. 



Cortez, and, in fact he speedily set in motion all the machinery of 

 civilization, which was gradually to operate upon the native 

 population whilst it attracted the overflowing, industrious or adven- 

 turous masses of his native land. Various expeditions, too, for 

 the purpose of exploration and extension, were fitted out by the 

 Captain General of New Spain ; so that, within three years after 

 the conquest, Cortez had reduced to the Spanish sway, a territory 

 of over four hundred leagues, or twelve hundred miles on the 

 Atlantic coast, and of more than five hundred leagues or fifteen 

 hundred miles on the Pacific. 1 



This sketch of a brief period after the subjugation of Mexico 

 developes the constructive genius of Cortez, as the preceding chap- 

 ters had very fully exhibited his destructive abilities. It shows, 

 however, that he was not liable justly to the censure which has so 

 often been cast upon him, — of being, only, a piratical plunderer 

 who was seduced into the conquest by the spirit of rapine alone. 



In a historical narrative which is designed to treat exclusively 

 of Mexico, it might perhaps be considered inappropriate to relate 

 that portion of the biography of Cortez which is covered by his 

 expedition to Honduras, whither he marched after he learned the 

 defection of his lieutenant Olid whom he had sent to that distant 

 region with a body of Spanish soldiers to found a dependant 

 colony. It was whilst on this disastrous march that the report of 

 a conspiracy to slay the Spaniards, in which Guatemozin was 

 implicated, reached his ears, and that the dethroned monarch, 

 together with several princes and inferior nobles, was hanged, by 

 his orders, on the branches of a tree. There is a difference of 

 opinion among contemporary writers as to the guilt of Guatemozin 

 and the Aztec nobles ; but it is probable that the unfortunate prince 

 had become a dangerous and formidable captive and that the grave 

 was a safer prison for such a personage, than the tents and 

 bivouacs of a menaced army. 



Another renowned character in this drama — the serviceable and 

 gentle Indian girl Dona Mariana, — was no longer needed and was 

 disposed of during this expedition, by marriage with Don Martin 

 Xamarillo, to whom she brought a noble dowry of estates, which 

 were assigned her by the conqueror in her native province, where, 

 in all likelihood she ended her romantic career. Her son by 

 Cortez, named after his grand-father Don Martin, became distin- 



1 Prescott, vol. 3, 274. 



