In the early part of the sixteenth century, the eastern shore of Mexico and Central America had been explored by Spanish navigators; and Vasco Nugnez de Baiboa, led by the ordinary attraction - tales of a country rich in gold and silver — had, in September, 1513, crossed the isthmus to the great and unknown ocean of the West. The condition and character of the natives was but little noticed by these early explorers, and no motives of policy or humanity restrained them from treating those they met as caprice or fanaticism might dictate. Balboa is indeed spoken of as inclined to more humane courses in his intercourse with the natives than many of his contemporaries, but even he showed himself by no means scrupulous in the means by which he forced his way through the country, and levied contributions upon the native chiefs. The mind of the Spanish nation was at last aroused and inflamed by accounts of the wealth and power of the great country open to adventure in New Spain, and plans were laid to undertake some more notable possession in those regions than had yet resulted from the unsuccessful and petty attempts at colonization upon the coast. Diego Valasquez, governor of Cuba, as lieutenant to Diego Colon, son and successor of the great admiral, sent an expedition, under command of Juan de Grijalva, to Yucatan and the adjoining coast, in April of the year 1518. After revenging former injuries received from the natives of Yucatan, the party sailed westward, and entered the river of Tobasco, where some intercourse and petty traffic was carried on with the Indians. The natives were filled with wonder at the "make of the ships, and difference of the men and habits," on their first appearance, and "stood without motion, as deprived of the use of their hands by the astonishment under which their eyes had brought them." The usual propositions were made by the Spanish com mander, of submission to the great and mighty Prince of the East, whose subject he professed to be ; but "they heard his proposition with the marks of a disagreeable attention," and, not unnaturally, made answer that the proposal to form a peace which should entail servitude upon them was strange indeed, adding that it would be well to inquire whether their present king was a ruler whom they loved before proposing a new one. Still pursuing a westerly course along the coast, Grijalva gained the first intelligence received by the Spaniards of the Emperor Montezuma. At a small island were found the first bloody tokens of the barbarous religious rites of the natives. In a "house of lime and stone" were "several idols of a horrible figure, and a more horrible worship paid to them; for, near the steps where they were placed, were the carcasses of six or seven men, newly sacrificed, cut to pieces, and their entrails laid open.' Reaching a low sandy isle, still farther to the westward, on the day of St. John the Baptist, the Spaniards named the place San Juan, and from their coupling with this title a word caught from an Indian seen there, resulted the name of San Juan de Ulloa, bestowed upon the site of the present great fortress. No settlement was attempted, and Grijalva returned to Cuba, carrying with him many samples of native ingenuity, and of the wealth of the country, in the shape of rude figures of lizards, birds, and other trifles, wrought in gold imperfectly refined. The Cuban governor, Velasquez, determined to pursue discoveries and conquest at the west, and appointed Hernando Cortez, a Spanish cavalier, resident upon the island, to command the new expedition. That the reader may judge what strange contradictions may exist in the character of the same individual,- how generosity and cupidity, mildness and ferocity, cruelty and kindness, may be combined,-let him compare the after conduct of this celebrated hero with his character as sketched by the historian. "Cortez was well made, and of an agreeable countenance; and, besides those common natural endowments, he was of a temper which rendered him very amiable; for he always spoke well of the absent, and was pleasant and discreet in his conversation. His generosity was such that his friends partook of all he had, without being suffered by him to publish their obligations.' In the words of the poet, he Adventure, and endurance, and emprise 66 Nothing Hidalgos of family and wealth crowded eagerly to join the fortunes of the bold and popular leader. was to be seen or spoken of," says Bernal Diaz, "but selling lands to purchase arms and horses, quilting coats of mail, making bread, and salting pork for sea store." From St. Jago the fleet sailed to Trinidad on the southern coast, where the force was increased by a considerable number of men, and thence round Cape Antonio to Havana. From the latter port the flotilla got under weigh on the 10th of February, 1519. It consisted of a brigantine and ten other small vessels, whose motley crews are thus enumerated: "five hundred and eight soldiers, sixteen horse; and of mechanics, pilots, and mariners, an hundred and nine more, besides two chaplains, the licentiate Juan Diaz, and Father Bartholomew De Olmedo, a regular of the order of our Lady de la Merced." The missile weapons of the party were muskets, cross-bows, falconets, and ten small field pieces of brass. The color, |