quality, and condition of each of the horses is described with great particularity.

The first land made was the island of Cozumel, off the coast of Yucatan. One of the vessels reached the island two days before the rest; and finding the habitations of the natives abandoned, the Spaniards ranged the country, and plundered their huts and temple, carrying off divers small gold images, together with clothes and provisions.

Cortez, on his arrival, strongly reprehended these proceedings, and, liberating three Indians who had been taken prisoners, sent them to seek out their friends, and explain to them his friendly intentions. Their confidence was perfectly restored by this act, and by the restoration of the stolen property; so that the next day, the chief came with his people to the camp, and mingled with the Spaniards on the most friendly terms.

No further violence was offered to them or their property during the stay of the Spaniards, except that these zealous reformers seized the idols in the temple, and rolling them down the steps, built an altar, and placed an image of the Virgin upon it, erecting a wooden crucifix hard by. The holy father, Juan Diaz, then said Mass, to the great edification of the wondering natives.

This temple was a well-built edifice of stone, and contained a hideous idol in somewhat of the human form. "All the idols," says de Solis, "worshipped by these miserable people, were formed in the same manner; for though they differed in the make and representation, they were all alike most abominably ugly ; whether it was that these barbarians had no notion of any other model, or that the devil really appeared to them in some such shape; so that he who struck out the most hideous figure, was accounted the best workman."

Seeing that no prodigy succeeded the destruction of their gods, the savages were the more ready to pay attention

to the teachings which were so earnestly impressed upon them by the strangers, and appeared to hold the symbols of their worship in some veneration, offering incense before them, as erstwhile to the idols.

Cortez heard one of the Indians make many attempts to pronounce the word Castilla, and, his attention being attracted by the circumstance, he pursued his inquiries until he ascertained that two Spaniards were living among the Indians on the main.

The

He immediately used great diligence to ransom and restore them to liberty, and succeeded in the case of one of them, named Jeronimo de Aguilar, who occupies an important place in the subsequent details of adventure. other, one Alonzo Guerrero, having married a wife among the Indians, preferred to remain in his present condition. He said to his companion, "Brother Aguilar, I am married, and have three sons, and am a Cacique and captain in the wars; go you, in God's name; my face is marked, and my ears bored; what would those Spaniards think of me if I went among them?"

man,

De Solis says of this that his natural affection was but a pretence" why he would not abandon those deplorable conveniences, which, with him, weighed more than honor or religion. We do not find that any other Spaniard, in the whole course of these conquests, committed the like crime; nor was the name of this wretch worthy to be remembered in this history; but, being found in the writings of others, it could not be concealed; and his example serves to show us the weakness of nature, and into what an abyss of misery a man may fall when God has abandoned him."

Poor Aguilar had been eight years a captive: tattooed, nearly naked, and browned by sun, he was scarce distinguishable from his Indian companions; and the only Castilian words which he was at first able to recall were "Dios,

Santa Maria," and "Sevilla." Still mindful of his old associations and religion, he bore at his shoulder the tattered fragments of a prayer book.

He belonged to a ship's crew who had been wrecked on the coast, and was the only survivor of the number, except Guerrero. The rest had died from disease and over work, or had been sacrificed to the idols of the country. Aguilar had been "reserved for a future occasion by reason of his leanness," and succeeded in escaping to another tribe and another master.

Cortez sailed with his fleet, from Cozumel, for the river Tabasco, which was reached on the 13th of March, 1519. Urging their way against the current, in the boats and smaller craft, for the principal vessels were left at anchor near the mouth, the whole armament entered the stream. As they advanced, the Spaniards perceived great bodies of Indians, in canoes, and on both banks, whose outcries. were interpreted by Aguilar to be expressions of hostility and defiance. Night came on before any attack was made on either side. Next morning, the armament recommenced its progress, in the form of a crescent: the men, protected as well as possible by their shields and quilted mail, were ordered to keep silence, and offer no violence until ordered. Aguilar, who understood the language of these Indians, was commissioned to explain the friendly purposes of his companions, and to warn the natives of the consequences that would result from their opposition. The Indians, with signs of great fury and violence, refused to listen to him, or to grant permission to the Spaniards to supply themselves with wood and water.

The engagement commenced by a shower of arrows from the canoes on the river, and an immense multitude opposed the landing of the troops. Numbers and bravery could not, however, avail against the European skill and implements of warfare. Those in the canoes were easily

driven off, and, notwithstanding the difficulties of a wet and marshy shore, where thousands of the enemy lay concealed to spring upon them unawares, the Spanish forces made their way to the town of Tabasco, driving the Indians into the fortress, or dispersing them in the forest. Tabasco was protected in the ordinary Indian style, by strong palisades of trees, a narrow and crooked entrance being left.

Cortez immediately attacked the town, and, by firing through the palisades, his troops soon drove in the bowmen who were defending them, and, after a time, got complete possession.

The town was obstinately defended, even after the Spaniards had effected an entrance. The enemy retreated behind a second barricade, "fronting " the troops, "valiantly whistling and shouting al calachioni,' or 'kill the captain." They were finally overpowered, and fled to the woods.

CHAPTER II.

GREAT BATTLES WITH THE NATIVES. — CONCILIATORY INTERCOURSE.

-DONNA MARINA.

HITHERTO a blind superstition, by which supernatural powers were ascribed to the whites, had quelled the vigor and spirit of the Indians; but an interpreter named Melchorejo, whom Cortez had brought over from Cuba, deserted from the Spaniards during the first night spent in Tabasco, and urged 'the natives to another engagement. He explained the real nature of the mysterious weapons, whose flash and thunder had created such terror, and disabused the simple savages of the ideas entertained by them of the invulnerable nature of their foes. They proved in

the subsequent battles much more dangerous opponents than before. The narrator mentions, with no little satisfaction, the fate of this deserter. His new allies, it seems, "being vanquished a second time, revenged themselves on the adviser of the war, by making him a miserable sacrifice to their idols."

All was as still, upon the succeeding day, as if the country was abandoned by its inhabitants; but a party of one hundred men, on a scout, was suddenly surrounded and attacked by such hordes of the enemy, that they might have been cut off from sheer fatigue, but for another company which came to their assistance. As the Spaniards endeavored to retreat to the camp, the Indians would rush upon them in full force, "who, immediately upon their facing about, got out of their reach, retiring with the same swiftness that they were attacked; the motions of this great multitude of barbarians from one side to another, resembling the rolling of the sea, whose waves are driven back by the wind."

Two of the Spaniards were killed and eleven wounded in the fray of the Indians, eighteen were seen lying dead on the field, and several prisoners were taken. From these Cortez learned that tribes from all sides were gathered to assist those of Tabasco in a general engagement planned for the next day, and he accordingly made the most diligent preparation to receive them. The horses were brought on shore, and care was taken to restore their animation, subdued by confinement on board ship.

As soon as day broke, mass was said, and the little army was put in motion' to advance upon the enemy. They were discovered, marshalled on the vast plain of Cintia, in such numbers that it was impossible to compute them. They extended so far, says Solis, "that the sight could not reach to see the end of them." The Indian warriors were painted and plumed, their arms were bows and arrows,