figure of a woman, and her name is
worthy to rank in the first verse and chapter of our story. It is
Marina, the beautiful Indian girl who had been given to the Spaniards,
among other female slaves, at Tabasco, in Yucatan, and who, Cortes had
learned, spoke the language of the Mexicans, in addition to her native
Yucatec. So Marina was the interpreter through whose medium
understanding was had with the natives. This was in conjunction with
the Spaniard Aguilar--the rescued castaway, who spoke the language of
Marina. But this was only at first, for as Cortes loved her and she
loved him, she soon acquired the Castilian of the _Conquistador_ as his
mistress.

Thus was parley opened with the natives and their caciques, and
knowledge gained of Montezuma, the great Emperor of the Aztecs, and of
the power and circumstances of their empire, whose rule extended to the
coast whereon they stood. Cortes and his captains made presents to the
caciques, and received such in return, and it was decided to establish
the colony of Villa Rica de Vera Cruz. A pretty piece of
juggling--singular yet not unjustifiable--took place in the
inauguration of this, Cortes establishing his captains as its
municipality, resigning the commission he had received from the
Governor of Cuba into the hands of the body he had called into being
himself, and then accepting from it a commission as captain-general,
all taking title as officials of the Crown of Spain! This proceeding,
solemnly carried out on the edge of the wilderness, and in sound of the
roaring waters of the Gulf, is not without a _Gilbertian_ spice.

Rude habitations had been built, guns mounted, and supplies secured
from the Indian population which flocked around the Spaniards. And
suddenly a new sensation was sprung upon these simple people. The
horses were brought on shore, and the cavalry manoeuvred upon the
beach; cannons were fired and trumpets sounded, the shot from the guns,
purposely directed against the trees, smashing them to splinters.
Filled with awe the Aztec chief of the place--the friendly cacique
Teuhtile--bade his picture-writers depict it all; and upon the native
paper these terrible gachupines[14] and their great "water-houses," and
thundering engines, and singular musical instruments, were drawn in
lifelike form by these native "newspaper artists," to be despatched
by the native postmen over the rocky fastnesses of the Cordilleras to
the great Montezuma. Then Cortes announ