Cortez, Hernando

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

kor'tez, Hernando (1485-1547), the Spanish conqueror of Mexico. He was a boy of eight when Columbus returned with his cargo of wonderful birds, animals, and products of the New World. At the age of nineteen we hear of him in the West Indies . At thirty-three he set out from Santiago, Cuba, for an exploration of Mexico. His force consisted of about 700 Spanish soldiers, 18 horses, and 10 small field guns. He landed at Vera Cruz , built a small fort, and burned his eleven small ships that his troops might have no occasion to think of them as a place of refuge. The details of the invasion are admirably told in Prescott's Conquest of Mexico. It is sufficient to say that his floating ships, his thunderdealing guns, and horses with riders caused the unsuspecting natives to regard the Spaniards as messengers of the gods. The invaders were received with every honor and were loaded with hospitality. Cortez was no sooner in position to do so than he stirred up sedition, imprisoned the unhappy Montezuma, and delivered him to a cruel death. He made himself master of the country by a series of crimes for which even the lust of conquest and the need of securing the safety of his small army furnishes no shadow of excuse. It is a pleasure to know that jealousy of his fame and a desire on the part of others to share the gold of Mexico led to the curtailing of his authority and his final recall. The man who was able to boast to Charles V, "I am a man who has gained you more provinces than your father left you towns," was spurned actually from the presence of his sovereign. He died in Spain an embittered, neglected man. See Aztecs ; Montezuma