appalled, were prepared to make any
concessions rather than incur the displeasure of such fearful foes.

The power of Cortez was now unquestioned, and Mexico was in the dust
before him. Still, the conqueror was in great perplexity respecting
the light in which his conduct was viewed in the court of his stern
monarch, Charles V. While engaged in the slaughter of two or three
hundred thousand people, while overrunning nations and establishing
new governments, he was acting not only without authority from his
government, but in direct opposition to its commands. Velasquez, the
governor of Cuba, was invested with authority by the voice of the
emperor, and yet Cortez had set his power at defiance. By the
command of the emperor, expeditions had been fitted out to prosecute
discoveries and to acquire dominion in Mexico, and yet Cortez had
audaciously made war upon these bands marching under the banner of
Spain. He had slain many, taken the rest prisoners, and constrained
them, by bribes and menaces, to join his marauding army. Cortez well
knew that this was treason, and that he was liable to answer for it
with his life. He well knew that Velasquez, mortified and exasperated,
had made bitter complaints against him at court, and that there was
no one there effectually to plead his cause.

Under these circumstances, Cortez awaited with much solicitude the
next arrival from Spain. In the mean time, he made every possible
effort to transmit gold and silver to the Spanish monarch, and with
untiring zeal urged his discoveries, that he might ennoble himself and
win the gratitude of his sovereign by adding to the wealth, the
dominion, and the fame of his native kingdom. Wishing to assume that
he was acting humbly as the servant of his king, he sent him, in the
form of dispatches, a minute account of all his movements.

As a specimen of these dispatches, the reader will peruse with
interest the following account of the last two days of the siege. This
dispatch is dated from the _City of Cuyoacan_ (_Mexico_), _May 15th,
1522_. This city was on the main land, at the end of one of the
causeways which led to the island capital. The letter is thus humbly
addressed:

"Most high and potent Prince; most catholic and invincible
Emperor, King, and Lord."

This narrative of the siege is so minute as to occupy one hundred and
fifty closely-printed octavo pages, and gives a circumstantial account
of the proceedings of each day. The c