enemies on board, the
enemies to get them out of his way, the friends to defend him to the
King against their accusations. He founded a city which he named Villa
Rica de Vera Cruz, the Rich Town of the True Cross. Then, as the next
step toward the invasion of the country, he proceeded to play Indian
politics.

First he accepted the invitation of the chief of the Totonacs, and
Moteczuma, hearing of it, sent the tax-gatherers to collect tribute and
also to demand twenty young men and women to sacrifice to the gods as an
atonement for having entertained the strangers. Cortes expressed lively
horror, and advised the chief of the Totonacs to throw the tax-gatherers
into prison. Then he secretly rescued them and telling them how deeply
he regretted their misfortunes as innocent men doing their duty to their
ruler, he sent them on board his own ships for safe-keeping. When the
Emperor heard what had happened he was enraged against the Totonacs. If
they wished to escape his vengeance now their only chance was to become
allies of Cortes.

Thus within a few days after landing, the commander had got all of his
own followers and a powerful native tribe so bound up with his fortunes
that they could not desert him without endangering their own skins. He
now suggested to two of the pilots that they should report five of the
ships to be in an unseaworthy condition from the borings of the
teredos--in those days sheathing for hulls had not been invented, and
the ship-worm was a constant danger, in tropical waters especially. At
the pilots' report Cortes appeared astonished, but saying that there was
nothing to do but make the best of it, ordered the ships to be
dismantled, the cordage, sails and everything that could be of use
brought on shore, and the stripped hulls scuttled and sunk. Then four
more were condemned, leaving but one small ship.

There was nearly a riot in the army, marooned in an unknown and
unfriendly land. Cortes made another speech. He pointed out the fact
that if they were successful in the expedition to the capital they would
not need the ships; if they were not, what good would the ships do them
when they were seventy leagues inland? Those who dared not take the risk
with him could still return to Cuba in the one ship that was left. "They
can tell there," he added in a tone which cut the deeper for being so
very quiet, "how they deserted their commander and their friends, and
patiently wait until we return with