h a
design? Who but Cortez would have attempted and successfully executed
it? To construct thirteen vessels of sufficient burthen to sustain the
weight and action of heavy cannon, and accommodate the men and soldiers
necessary to navigate and defend them, at a distance of twenty leagues
from the waters on which they were to swim--to convey them over
mountains, and through deep and difficult defiles, on the shoulders of
men, without the aid of any species of waggon, or beast of burden, and
to do this in the midst of a country, and with the aid of a people,
where nothing had hitherto been known beyond the primitive bark canoe,
and where the natural associations, and prevailing superstitions of the
natives, were totally adverse to his design--to accomplish this alone
would immortalize any other man. What was the passage of the Alps by
Hannibal, or by Napoleon, compared to this? Yet, so replete was the
whole expedition of Cortez with adventures of unparalleled difficulty,
and achievements of dazzling splendor, that this is but a common event
in his history, with nothing small or insignificant to place it in
commanding relief. It was one of the infelicities in the career of this
wonderful man, that he was continually eclipsing himself, showing an
originality and power of conception, a fertility of invention and
resource, and a determination and energy in overcoming difficulties, and
making occurrences, seemingly the most adverse, bend to his will and
subserve his designs, which wearies our surprise and admiration, and
actually exhausts our capacity of astonishment.

Nothing was now wanting to complete the arrangements of the invader for
laying siege to Tenochtitlan. By the aid of the brigantines, he was able
to command the entire lake, sweeping away the frail canoes of the
natives, like bubbles on the surface. All the cities and towns on its
border had fallen, one after another, into his hands, though not without
a desperate defence, and frequent and wasting sallies from the foe. The
metropolis, that beautiful and magnificent gem upon the fair bosom of
the lake, now stood alone, deserted by all her friends and supporters,
the object of the concentrated hostility of the foreign invader, the
ancient enemy, and the recent ally.

In that devoted capital, now so closely and fearfully invested, there
was a spirit and power fully equal to the awful crisis. As soon as
Guatimozin perceived, by the movements of his enemy, that the ci