n
one house one hundred and thirty-six thousand skulls. It was high time
to get rid of those Mexicans off the face of the earth; and in God's good
time a man was found to rid the earth of them, and that man was Hernando
Cortez.

And who was Cortez? He was a poor young Spanish gentleman, son of an
infantry captain, who, in his youth, was sickly and weakly; and his
father tried to make a lawyer of him, and would have done it, but young
Cortez kicked over the traces, as we say, right and left, and turned out
such a wild fellow, that he would not stay at college; and after getting
into plenty of scrapes, started as a soldier to the West Indies when he
was only nineteen. Little did people think what stuff there was in that
wild, sickly lad!

How he got on in the Spanish West Indies would be a long story. I will
only tell you that he turned out a thoroughly good soldier, and a very
dashing smart fellow, a first-rate rider and fencer, a great dandy in his
dress; but also--and if you go to hot climates, keep this in mind--a
particularly sober and temperate man, who drank nothing, and could eat
anything. And he had, it is said, the most extraordinary power of
managing his men. He was always cool and determined; and what he said
had to be done, and they knew it; but his way with them was so frank and
kind, and he was so ready to be the foremost in daring and enduring,
living worse often than his own men, while he was doing every thing for
their comfort, that there was nothing they would not do for him, as the
event proved--for if those soldiers had not trusted him for life and
death, I should not have this grand story to tell.

At last he married a very pretty woman, and got an estate in the West
Indies, and settled down there; and the chances were ten to one that no
one ever heard of him. However, dim reports came to the West Indies of
this great empire of Mexico, and of all its wonders and wealth, and that
stirred up Cortez's blood; and nothing would serve him but that leaving
wife and estate, he must start out again to seek his fortune.

He got a commission from the Governor, such as it was, for they were
lawless places those Spanish West Indies then; and everybody fulfilled a
certain Irishman's notion of true liberty--for he did "what was right in
the sight of his own eyes, and what _was wrong too_"--and Cortez's
commission was to go and discover this country, and trade with the
people, and make Christians of them-