ered, when he is
remembered at all, as "The Great Captain"; but sickness prevented.
{118} Following that, his thoughts turned, as did those of so many
Spanish youths who were of an adventurous disposition, toward the New
World. After many setbacks, one of which was caused by a wound
received by the hot-blooded young man while engaged in a love affair,
and which left a permanent scar upon his upper lip, he finally landed
at Santo Domingo in the Spring of 1504. From there he went to Cuba and
served under one Diego Velasquez, the governor of that province in some
fierce fighting in the island, and received as a reward from the
governor, who was much attached to him, a large plantation with a
number of Indians to work it. There he married and lived prosperously.
What he had done before he arrived in Mexico counted little. What he
did afterward gave him eternal fame as one, if not the greatest, of the
conquerors and soldiers of fortune in all history. Sir Arthur Helps
thus portrays him:

"Cortes," he says, "was an heroic adventurer, a very politic statesman,
and an admirable soldier. He was cruel at times in conduct, but not in
disposition; he was sincerely religious, profoundly dissembling,
courteous, liberal, amorous, decisive. There was a certain grandeur in
all his proceedings. He was fertile in resources; and, while he looked
forward, he was at the same time almost madly audacious in his
enterprises. This strange mixture of valor, religion, policy, and
craft, was a peculiar product of the century. . . . There are two main
points in his character which I shall dwell upon at the outset. These
are his soldier-like qualities and his cruelty. As a commander, the
only fault imputed to him, was his recklessness in exposing himself to
the dangers of personal conflict with the enemy. But then, that is an
error {119} to be commonly noticed even in the greatest generals of
that period; and Cortes, with this singular dexterity in arms, was
naturally prone to fall into this error. As regards his peculiar
qualifications as a commander, it may be observed, that, great as he
was in carrying out large and difficult operations in actual warfare,
he was not less so in attending to those minute details upon which so
much of the efficiency of troops depends. His companion-in-arms,
Bernal Diaz, says of him, 'He would visit the hut of every soldier, see
that his arms were ready at hand, and that he had his shoes on. Those
who