&84 M E X 
renewed his requeft of audience, the Mexican immedi¬ 
ately left the camp with ftrong marks of furprife and re- 
fentment. Next morning, none of the natives appeared ; 
-all friendly correfpondence feemed to be at an end, and 
hoftilities were expefted to commence every moment. A 
fudde'n confirmation enfued among the Spaniards 5 and a 
party was formed againft him by the adherents of Velaf- 
ques, the governor of Cuba, who took advantage of the 
occafion, and deputed one of their number, a principal 
officer, to remonftrate, as if in the name of the whole 
army, againft his raffinefs, and to urge the neceffity of his 
returning to Cuba. Cortes received the meftage without 
any appearance of emotion ; and, as he well knew the 
temper and willies of his foldiery, with much compla¬ 
cency he pretended to comply with the requeft now made 
him, and ilfued orders that the army (hould be in readi- 
nefs next day to embark for Cuba. Upon hearing this, 
the troops, as Cortes had expe&ed, were quite outrage¬ 
ous : they pofitively refufed to comply with thefe orders, 
and threatened immediately to choofe another general if 
Cortes continued to infifi on their departure. 
Our adventurer was highly pleafed with the difpofition 
■which now appeared among his troops : neverthelefs„dif- 
fembling his fentiments, he declared, that his orders for 
embarking had proceeded from a perfuafion that it was 
agreeable to his fellow-foldiers, to whofe opinion he had 
facrificed his own ; but now he acknowledged his error, 
and was ready to refume his original plan of operations. 
This fpeech was highly applauded; and Cortes, without 
allowing his men time to cool, fet about carrying his 
defigns into execution. In order to give a beginning to 
a colony, he affembled the principal perfons in his army, 
and by their fuft’rages elefled a council and magiftrates, 
an whom the government was to be veiled. The perfons 
chofen were moll firmly attached to Cortes; and the new 
fettlement had the name of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz; 
that is, “ The Rich Town of the True Crofs.” 
Before this court of his own making, Cortes did not 
iiefitate at refigning all his authority; and was immedi¬ 
ately elefted chief-juftice of the colony, and captain- 
general of his army, with an ample commiffion, in the 
Icing’s name, to continue in force till the royal pleafure 
Ihould be farther known. The foldiers eagerly ratified 
their choice by loud acclamations ; and Cortes, now con- 
fidering himfelf as no longer accountable to any fubjedl, 
began to aflume a much greater degree of dignity, and to 
txercjfe more extenfive powers than he had done before. 
Cortes, having thus flrengthened himfelf as well as he 
could, refolved to advance into the country; and to this 
he was encouraged by the behaviour of the cacique, or 
petty prince, of Zempoalla, a confiderable town at no 
great diftance. Here he was received in the moll friend¬ 
ly manner imaginable, and had a relpeft paid to him 
almoil equivalent to adoration. The cacique informed 
him of many particulars relating to the cliaradler of Mon¬ 
tezuma. He told him that he was a tyrant, haughty, 
cruel, and lufpicious ; who treated his own fubjedts with 
arrogance, ruined the conquered provinces by his extor¬ 
tions, and often tore their ions and daughters from them 
by violence; the former to be offered as vidlims to his 
gods, the latter to be referved as concubines for himfelf 
and favourites. Cortes, in reply, artfully infinuated, that 
one great objeft of the Spaniards in vifiting a country fo 
remote from their own was, to redrefs grievances, and to 
relieve the opprejffed; and, having encouraged him to hope 
for this interpolition in due time, continued his march 
to Quiabiflan, the territory of another cacique, and where, 
by the friendly aid of the Indians, a Spanifii colony w r as 
ioon formed. 
During the refidence of Cortes in thefe parts, he fo far 
wrought on the minds of the caciques of Zempoalla and 
Quiabiflan, that they ventured to infult the Mexican 
power, at the very name of which they had been formerly 
accullomcd to tremble. Some of Montezuma’s officers 
having appeared to levy the ulual tribute, and to demand 
ICO. 
a certain number of human vidlims, as an expiation of 
their guilt in prefuming to hold intercourfe with thofe 
ftrangers whom the emperor had commanded to leave his 
dominions ; inftead of obeying his orders, they made them 
prifoners, treated them with great indignity, and, as their 
fuperftition was no lefs barbarous than Montezuma’s, 
they threatened to facrifice them to their gods. 
Though Cortes had now taken fuch meafures as in a 
manner enfured his fuccefs; yet, as he had thrown off all 
dependence on the governor of Cuba, who was his law¬ 
ful fuperior, and apprehended his enmity at court, he 
thought proper, before he fet out on his intended expe¬ 
dition, to take the moll effedlual meafures againft: the 
impending danger. With this view, he perfuaded the 
magillrates of his colony to addrefs a letter to the king, 
containing a pompous account of their own fervices, of 
the country they had dilcovered, &c. and of the motives 
which had induced them to throw off their allegiance to 
the governor of Cuba, and to fettle a colony dependent 
on the crown alone, in which the fupreme power, civil 
as well as military, had been veiled in Cortes; humbly 
requelling their fovereign to ratify by his royal authority 
what had been done. 
Some foldiers and failors, fecretly difaffedled to Cortes, 
formed a defign of feizing one of the brigantines, and 
making their elcape to Cuba, in order to give fuch intel¬ 
ligence to the governor as might enable him to intercept 
the veffel which was to carry the treafure and difpatches 
to Spain. This confpiracy was conducted with profound 
fecrecy ; but, at the moment when every thing was ready 
for execution, the fecret was difcovered by one of the 
affociates. The latent fpirit of dilaffedlion, which Cortes 
was now too well convinced had not been extir.guifhed 
amongll his troops, gave him very great uneafmefs. The 
only method which he could think of to prevent fuch 
confpiracies for the future was to deftroy his fleet, and 
thus deprive his foldiers of every refource except that of 
conqueft. With this propofal he perfuaded his men to 
comply ; and, by an effort of magnanimity, unparalleled 
in hillory, 500 men voluntarily confented to be Ihut up 
in a holtile country, and, having precluded every method 
of efcape, left themfelves without any refource but theii 
own valour and perfeverance. 
Having thus rendered it neceffary for his troops to fol* 
low wherever he chofe to lead, Cortes began his march 
to Zempoalla with 500 infantry, 15 horfe, and 6 field- 
pieces. The reft of his troops being lefs fit for adlive 
lervice, he left them as a garrifon in Villa Rica, under 
the command of Efcalante, an officer of merit, and warmly 
attached to his interell. The cacique of Zempoalla fup- 
plied him with provifions; and with 200 of thofe Indians 
called tammies, whofe office, in a country where tame ani¬ 
mals were unknown, was to carry burdens, and perform 
all manner of fervile labour. He offered likewife a con¬ 
fiderable body of troops; but Cortes was fatisfied with 
400 ; taking care, however, to choofe perlons of fuch 
note, that they might ferve as holtages for the fidelity of 
their mailer. 
Nothing memorable happened till the Spaniards arrived 
on the confines of the republic of Tlafcala. The inhabi¬ 
tants of that province were warlike, fierce, and revenge¬ 
ful, and had made confiderable progrefs in agriculture 
and fome other arts. They were implacable enemies to 
Montezuma, who, as we have feen, had waged an unluc- 
cefsful war againll them ; and therefore Cortes hoped that 
it would be an eafy matter for him to procure their friend- 
lhip. With this view, four Zempoallans of high rank 
were fent ambaffadors to Tlafcala, dreffed with all the 
badges of that office ulual among the Indians. The le- 
nate were divided in their opinions with regard to the 
propofal of Cortes: but at lall Magifcatzin, one of the 
oldeft fenators, and a perlbn of great authority, mentioned 
the tradition of their ancellors, and the revelations of 
their priefts; that a race of invincible men, of divine ori¬ 
gin, who had power over the elements, fhould come from 
a the 
