90 EXPEDITIONS OF CORTEZ CALIFORNIA QUI VARA. 



back on the glorious valley, — the scene of his noblest exploits, — 

 forever, and took up his abode in his town of Cuernavaca, which, 

 it will be recollected, he captured from the Aztecs before the capi- 

 tal fell into his hands. This was a place lying in the lap of a 

 beautiful valley, sheltered from the north winds and fronting the 

 genial sun of the south, and here he once more returned to the 

 cares of agriculture, — introducing the sugar cane from Cuba, en- 

 couraging the cultivation of flax and hemp, and teaching the 

 people the value of lands, cattle and husbandry which they had 

 never known or fully appreciated. Gold and silver he drew from 

 Zacatecas and Tehuantepec ; but he seems to have wisely thought 

 that the permanent wealth and revenue of himself and his heirs 

 would best be found in tillage. 



Our limits will not permit us to dwell upon the agricultural, 

 mineral and commercial speculations of Cortez, nor upon his 

 various adventures in Mexico. It is sufficient to say that he 

 planned several expeditions, the most important of which, was un- 

 successful in consequence of his necessary absence in Spain, 

 whither he had been driven, as we have seen, to defend himself 

 against the attacks of his enemies. Immediately, however, upon 

 his return to Mexico, he not only sent forth various navigators, to 

 make further discoveries, but departed himself for the coast of 

 Jalisco, which he visited in 1534 and 1535. He recovered a 

 ship, which had been seized by Nuno de Guzman ; and having 

 assembled the vessels he had commanded to be built in Tehuante- 

 pec, he embarked every thing needful to found a colony. The 

 sufferings he experienced in this expedition were extraordinarily 

 great; his little fleet was assailed by famine and tempests, and, so 

 long was he unheard of, in Mexico, that, at the earnest instance of 

 his wife, the viceroy Mendoza sent two vessels to search for him. 

 He returned, at length, to Acapulco ; but not content with his 

 luckless efforts, he made arrangements for a new examination of 

 the coasts, by Francisco de Ulloa, which resulted in the discovery 

 of California, as far as the Isle de Cedros, and of all that gulf, to 

 which geographers have given the name of the " Sea of Cortez." 



His expenses in these expeditions exceeded three hundred thou- 

 sand castellanos of gold, which were never returned to him by the 

 government of Spain. Subsequently, a Franciscan missionary, 

 Fray Marcos de Niza, reported the discovery, north of Sonoma, of 

 a rich and powerful nation called Quivara, whose capital he repre- 

 sented as enjoying an almost European civilization. Cortez 

 claimed his right to take part in or command an expedition which 



