century, introducing the use of metals and roads and many of the
elements of civilisation. Montezuma is reported to have been able
to range no less than two hundred thousand men under his banners,
but he showed his opinion of the Spaniards by sending them costly
presents, gold and silver and costly stuffs. This only aroused
the cupidity of Cortes, who determined to make a bold stroke for
the conquest of such a rich prize. He burnt his ships and advanced
into the interior of the country, conquering on his way the tribe
of the Tlascalans, who had been at war with the Mexicans, but,
when conquered, were ready to assist him against them. With their
aid he succeeded in seizing the Mexican king, who was forced to
yield a huge tribute. After many struggles Cortes found himself
master of the capital, and of all the resources of the Mexican
Empire (1521). These he hastened to place at the feet of the Emperor
Charles V., who appointed him Governor and Captain-General of Mexico.
It is characteristic throughout the history of the New World, that
none of the soldiers of fortune who found it such an easy prey ever
thought of setting up an empire for himself. This is a testimony
to the influence national feeling had upon the minds even of the
most lawless, and the result was that Europe and European ideas
were brought over into America, or rather the New World became
tributary to Europe.

As soon as Cortes had established himself he fitted out expeditions
to explore the country, and himself reached Honduras after a remarkable
journey for over 1000 miles, in which he was only guided by a map on
cotton cloth, on which the Cacique of Tabasco had painted all the
towns, rivers, and mountains of the country as far as Nicaragua. He
also despatched a small fleet under Alvarro de Saavedra to support
a Spanish expedition which had been sent to the Moluccas under
Sebastian del Cano, and which arrived at Tidor in 1527, to the
astonishment of Spanish and Portuguese alike when they heard he
had started from New Castile. In 1536, Cortes, who had been in
the meantime shorn of much of his power, conducted an expedition
by sea along the north-west coast of Mexico, and reached what he
considered to be a great island. He identified this with an imaginary
island in the Far East, near the terrestrial paradise to which
the name of California had been given in a contemporary romance.
Thus, owing to Cortes, almost the whole of Central America had
become k