442 



HISTORY OF MEXICO* 



fo obftinately in their demand, that he was obliged to 

 grant them permhTion not to return to Vera Cruz, to 

 wait for fome reinforcement, but to Cuba, in order to be 

 at a greater diftance from the dangers of war, it appear- 

 ing a lefs evil to that judicious and difcerning leader to 

 diminifh the number of his troops than to keep difcon- 

 tented men, who, by their want of fpirit, would relax 

 the courage and damp the minds of the reft ; but this lofs 

 was quickly and abundantly fupplied by a confiderable 

 number of foldiers, who arrived with horfes, arms, and 

 ammunition, at the port of Vera Cruz ; one party being 

 fent by the governor of Cuba to the affiftance of Nar- 

 vaez, the other by the governor of Jamaica, to the expe- 

 dition of Panuco : who all willingly joined themfelves 

 to Cortes, converting thofe very means, which were em- 

 ployed by his enemies for his ruin, into inftruments of 

 his fuccefs. 



The conquefts of the Spaniards, and the number of 

 their allies, fo aggrandifed their name, and procured 

 fuch authority to Cortes among thofe people, that he 

 was the umpire in all their differences, and they repair- 

 ed to him as if he had been the fovereign lord of all the 

 region, to obtain confirmation of the inveftiture of va- 

 cant ftates, and in particular thofe of Cholula and Oco- 

 telolco in Tlafcala, both vacant by deaths occafioned by 

 the fmall-pox. This fcourge of the human race, totally 

 unknown hitherto in the new world, was brought there 

 by a Moorilh Have belonging to Narvaez. He infe&ed 

 the Chempoallefe, and from thence the infection fpread 

 through all the Mexican empire, to the irremediable de- 

 ftru&ion of thofe nations. Many thoufands perifhed and 

 fome places were utterly depopulated. They whofe con- 

 ftitution furmounted the violence of the diftemper, re- 

 mained fo disfigured and marked with fuch "deep pits in 



the 



