touched at Yucatan, and the swift
runners brought the tidings over nigh a thousand miles of forest and
mountain in a few days, the credulous ear of Montezuma listened easily.
And when the Spaniards landed at Vera Cruz, and won their way up to the
fastnesses of Anahuac, it was still the hand of destiny. The time was
fulfilled, the arm of civilisation had reached out towards the West,
and it fell athwart the Great Plateau of unknown Mexico.

CHAPTER IV
CORTES AND THE CONQUEST

Landing of Cortes--Orizaba peak--The dawn of conquest--Discovery of
Yucatan--Velasquez and Grijalva--Life and character of Cortes--Cortes
selected to head the expedition--Departure from Cuba--Arrival at
Yucatan--The coast of Vera Cruz--Marina--Vera Cruz established--Aztec
surprise at guns and horses--Montezuma--Dazzling Aztec gifts--Messages
to Montezuma--Hostility of the Aztecs--Key to the situation--The
Cempoallas--Father Olmedo--Religion and hypocrisy of the Christians--
March to Cempoalla--Montezuma's tax-collectors--Duplicity of Cortes--
Vacillation of Montezuma--Destruction of Totonac idols--Cortes
despatches presents to the King of Spain--Cortes destroys his ships--
March towards the Aztec capital--Scenery upon line of march--The
fortress of Tlascala--Brusque variations of climate--The Tlascalans--
Severe fighting--Capitulation of Tlascala--Faithful allies--Messengers
from Montezuma--March to Cholula--Massacre of Cholula--The snow-capped
volcanoes--First sight of Tenochtitlan.

"Brightly my star, new hope supplying,
Leads on the hour shall all, all repay!"

Such, indeed, might have been the sentiment which inspired the breasts
of Hernando Cortes and his Spaniards on that memorable Good Friday,
April 21, 1519, as they first set foot upon the Mexican mainland, upon
those sandy shores which in the act they christened Vera Cruz.

Before them, far away beyond the sandy desert and the tree-crowned
slopes, stretched a high cordillera, a curtain drawn between them and
the unknown world of the interior. What lay there? Matters of grave
interest and preoccupation! For beyond that far, blue maritime defence
of Anahuac--they had that moment learned it--there dwelt a mighty
potentate and people, steeped with savage soldier-craft, rendered more
terrible by the barbaric civilisation which it upheld. Here were no
gentle savages such as they had hunted in the forests of Cuba and
Hispaniola; and the mail-clad, helmeted Spaniards listened a