especial abhorrence. Two
years were worse than wasted in the university. Young Cortez was both
indolent and dissipated. In all the feats of mischief he was the
ringleader, and his books were entirely neglected. He received
many censures, and was on the point of being expelled, when his
disappointed father withdrew the wayward boy from the halls of the
university, and took him home.

Hernando was now sixteen years of age. There was nothing for him to do
in the seclusion of his native village but to indulge in idleness.
This he did with great diligence. He rode horses; he hunted and
fished; he learned the art of the swordsman and played the soldier.
Hot blood glowed in his veins, and he became genteelly dissolute; his
pride would never allow him to stoop to vulgarity. The father was
grief-stricken by the misconduct of his son, and at last consented to
gratify the passion which inspired him to become a soldier.

At seventeen years of age the martial boy enlisted in an expedition,
under Gonsalvo de Cordova, to assist the Italians against the French.
Young Cortez, to his bitter disappointment, just as the expedition
started, was taken seriously sick, and was obliged to be left behind.
Soon after this, one of his relatives was appointed, by the Spanish
crown, governor of St. Domingo, now called Hayti, but then called
Hispaniola, or Little Spain. This opening to scenes and adventures in
the New World was attractive to the young cavalier in the highest
possible degree. It was, indeed, an enterprise which might worthily
arouse the enthusiasm of any mind. A large fleet was equipped to
convey nearly three thousand settlers to found a colony beneath the
sunny skies and under the orange groves of the tropics. Life there
seemed the elysium of the indolent man. Young Cortez now rejoiced
heartily over his previous disappointment. His whole soul was
engrossed in the contemplation of the wild and romantic adventures in
which he expected to luxuriate. It is not to be supposed that a lad of
such a temperament should, at the age of seventeen, be a stranger to
the passion of love. There was a young lady in his native village for
whom he had formed a strong youthful attachment. He resolved, with his
accustomed ardor and recklessness, to secure an interview with his
lady-love, where parting words and pledges should not be witnessed by
prudent relatives.

One dark night, just before the squadron sailed, the ardent lover
climbed a mouldering