is short, and what is to be done 'twere well it were done
quickly!" And so he sailed away towards the West, into a sunset-land of
conquest-dreams, and left Velasquez fuming on the quay.[13]

[Footnote 13: This story of the departure of Cortes is doubted by some
writers, but it appeals to the mind of the adventurous traveller in
those regions, even to-day, with too strong a ring of probability to be
ignored.]

But the jealous Governor's resources were not quite exhausted. He
despatched swift messengers to other Cuban ports where the expedition
must touch for further supplies, ill-provisioned as it was by the hasty
departure, with orders for the authorities at these points to detain
Cortes at all hazards. It was useless. Far from detention, he received
supplies and reinforcements. A number of well-known _hidalgos_ joined
him, among them Pedro de Alvarado, Cristoval de Olid, Velasquez de
Leon, Gonzalo de Sandoval, Hernandez Puertocarrero, Alonzo de Avila,
and others who took a valiant part afterwards in the conquest. At his
last port of departure Cortes wrote a letter to Velasquez, of a
conciliatory nature: reviewed his forces, which amounted to nearly nine
hundred Spaniards and two hundred Indians, with ten heavy guns, several
falconets, ample ammunition, and sixteen horses, in eleven vessels.
Having addressed the forces in words of enthusiasm, dangling before
them the glories of conquest, specially pointing out to them that they
were carrying the Cross to set before savages, Cortes invoked the
patronage of St. Peter, and the squadron set sail for the shores of
Yucatan.

How they arrived at the island of Cozumel, fought with the Indians of
the mainland, tumbled the gross idols of the savages from their
pyramid-temple, and set up an altar to the Virgin; and how they
recovered an unfortunate Spaniard who had sojourned eight years, after
shipwreck, with the natives of Yucatan; how Alvarado antagonised the
natives and Cortes pacified them; and how they sailed thence to the
real shores of Mexico, where we left them halting, are fascinating
matters of their voyage which we must thus lightly pass over.

[Illustration: PREHISTORIC MEXICO: RUINS OF "THE PALACE" AT
CHICHEN-YTZA, IN YUCATAN.]

Behold a level, sun-beat, wind-swept plain, the drifting sand blown
into _medanos_, or sand-hills, by the hurricanes of the gulf, the
perennial _norte_. Here are the _Conquistadores_ grouped, Cortes and
his associates. Among them is the