deas of the form which true appreciation should take. The facts
are simple enough. In 1525 she was with the Conqueror at Coatzacualco,
the province which could claim the honor of being her birthplace. Here,
by accident, she came into contact with her own mother, who had sold her
into slavery and who was now naturally terrified at meeting her injured
daughter in a situation of power; but Marina, with her natural
generosity, embraced her parent, assured her of her forgiveness, and
even made her many presents, apparently in the wish to regain that
affection which had once been hers in her babyhood. This was the last
time that Marina appears by the side of Cortes; on the expedition to
Honduras, made shortly afterward, he gave her away to Don Juan
Xamarillo, a knight of Castile, who wedded her according to the rites of
the Catholic Church. Here then is the question which each must decide
for himself: Was Cortes just and generous in thus making disposition for
the honorable and safe future of the woman who loved him, or was he
merely ridding himself of one who had grown to be an encumbrance? It is
impossible to answer; it is not even known whether the marriage was
arranged with the sanction of Marina or whether it was a piece of
tyranny on the part of the Conqueror, of venality on the part of Don
Juan, of heartbroken docility on the part of Marina. Nor is there any
record of the further life of the latter by which to decide the
probabilities of her marriage being more than a mere contract; from the
time of the completion of the ceremony the gentle Marina fades from the
page of history. It is certain indeed that she was given estates in
Coatzacualco,--possibly the bribe which induced Don Juan to wed the
mistress of his captain,--but it is not even known that she lived to
take possession of those estates. Except for the unmerited persecution
and shameful torture undergone by her son, Don Martin Cortes, we are
never again reminded in history that Marina had lived to be the right
hand of one of the greatest conquerors of all time, to prove the most
valuable ally found by the fierce enemies of her native land, and yet to
be held in lasting honor alike by conquerors and conquered.

[Illustration 3: THE BEAUTIFUL MAIDENS PRESENTED TO THE SPANIARDS.
_Reproduced from the "Lienzo de Tlaxcala".
Munoz Camargo relates hot their Tlaxcalan allies presented the Spaniards
a large number of "beautiful maidens." This native representation of the