the beautiful feather-work, and the
other rare presents of the Aztecs, all given over by the Spaniards as a
royal gift to the young Spanish king; together with a voluminous
epistle. This was sent with the design of forestalling the machinations
of Velasquez; and though the vessel touched at Cuba, it escaped
detention, and safely arrived in Spain. But meantime disaffection arose
in the new colony, and a conspiracy was formed to seize a vessel and
escape to Cuba, by some of the Spaniards who were discontented and
fearful of the future. The plot was discovered and the authors seized
and executed, and a dramatic sequel to this conspiracy came about.
Cortes and some of his advisers resolved to prevent the recurrence of
any further danger of this nature; to put it out of the power of any to
desert; to place the knowledge of the inevitable before his troops,
that the conquest must be undertaken or death found in the attempt. He
sank his ships! Yes; the brigantines which had borne them thither, and
were their only means of retreat from those savage shores, were
dismantled and destroyed.

And now the Spaniards resolutely turn their faces to the mountains.
Threats and entreaties are stilled; the colony is established, the base
secured, the ships are sunk, save that single white-winged caravel far
over the waters of the gulf, prow to the shores of Spain. The Mass is
said, the books are closed. "Forward! my comrades," said Cortes;
"before us lies a mountain road; and adventure, gold, and glory!"

The traveller of to-day, as he traverses by rail the desert coast zone
of the Mexican littoral, and ascends the steep slopes of the eastern
Cordillera of the Sierra Madre, to gain access to the Great Plateau or
Valley of Mexico beyond it, reposing amid the cushions of his Pullman
car, will neither endure the fatigue which the _Conquistadores_
suffered nor be assailed, night and day, with the menace of savage foes
on every hand. But the grand and varied setting still remains: the
strange and beautiful fairyland of Nature's rapid transformation
scenes, the changing landscape and successive climates of this
remarkable region. The sandy wastes give place to tropical forests and
fertile valleys, with their bright accompaniment of profuse flower- and
bird-life. These, in turn, disappear from the changing panorama, and
the traveller reaches the appalling escarpments of the Mexican Andes,
looking down from time to time from dizzy ridges, where th