selected for his deputy such a man as is here described. He soon
repented of his confidence, and sought to revoke the commission which he
had bestowed. But Cortez, in addition to the funds provided by the
governor, had spent the whole of his own available means in raising
troops, and making preparations for the enterprise; he was already
embarked at the head of a body of impatient adventurers; and he despised
a mandate which there were no means of enforcing. And one of his first
steps after landing on the Main was to throw off formally all
subordination to Velasquez, and to assume the title of Chief Justice and
Captain General of the intended colony, by virtue of a new commission,
drawn in the king’s name, and purporting to continue in force until the
royal pleasure should be known.
The expedition sailed from Cuba, February 10, 1519, and following the
track of the preceding one, coasted the western side of the peninsula of
Yucatan. At St. Juan de Ulloa some natives came on board, and replied to
the questions put to them through the medium of interpreters, that their
country formed part of a great empire called Mexico, governed by a
powerful monarch, Montezuma. Several interviews followed, in which
Cortez, professing to come as ambassador from his own sovereign,
perseveringly demanded to be led into the presence of Montezuma. This
was peremptorily refused; but the denial, as if to make amends, was
accompanied by presents rich enough to inflame, had that been necessary,
the cupidity of the strangers. Instead of departing, they laid the
foundations of a settlement, named Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz.
Meanwhile, Montezuma acted indecisively and weakly: he neither admitted
his formidable visitors to the friendly intercourse which they
insidiously demanded, nor summoned the strength of his empire to crush
them at once; but let them fortify themselves while he was making vain
requisitions for their immediate departure, and gave time and
opportunity to those who were discontented under his own heavy yoke, to
rally round the standard of the invader. And it was not long before the
Spaniards obtained that native assistance, without which their mere
physical strength must have sunk under the vastness of their enterprise.
The Cacique of Zempoalla, prompted by hatred of Montezuma, was the first
to assist in the ruin of his native land. Supported by a small body of
that chieftain’s troops, and attended by 200 Indians of an inferior
class, who in that country, where the art of breaking animals to the use
of man was unknown, performed the humiliating services of beasts of
burden, Cortez marched from Zempoalla towards the heart of the country,
August 16, with only 500 Europeans, and six cannon. Aware that on the
first reverse of fortune his men might grow disgusted with an enterprise
of such formidable appearance, or from mere inconstancy might be eager
to return to their homes in Cuba, a temper which had been already
manifested by some, he resolved, before quitting the coast, to destroy
the shipping; and it is a remarkable instance of his ascendency over his
followers’ minds, that he procured a general consent to this decisive,
not to say desperate measure, which left small hope of safety but in
success.
His route lay through the country of the Tlascalans, a warlike people,
who spurned his professions of friendship, and attacked the invaders in
a series of battles. The imperfection of their weapons rendered their
efforts fruitless; and having been severely taught the strength of their
enemies, they sued for peace, and became faithful and active allies. The
Spaniards, accompanied by a body of 6000 Tlascalans, then advanced
without resistance to Mexico itself; after punishing an attempt to lead
them into an ambuscade at Cholula by an indiscriminate massacre, in
which 6000 persons are reported to have perished. Montezuma received
them with the semblance of profound respect. He told them of an ancient
tradition, that the ancestors of the Mexicans came originally from a
remote region, and conquered the land: after which their leader went
back to his own country, promising that at some future period his
descendants should return to reform their constitution, and assume the
government; and Montezuma expressed his belief that the Spaniards were
the persons whom his countrymen were thus taught to expect. Another
tradition, which helped to produce that weak and wavering conduct which
gave the Spaniards such advantage, foretold that some great misfortune
should accrue to the native inhabitants from a race of invaders from the
regions of the rising sun. It is remarkable that, according to the
earliest and best Spanish historians, this belief was very prevalent in
the New World.
The Spaniards, with their Indian allies, were quartered in the ample
precincts of a royal palace. But Cortez was uneasy, notwithstanding
these fair appearances. He had advanced with a handful of men into a
populous city, where he might at any time be surrounded and attacked by
multitudes. He was warned by the Tlascalans of Montezuma’s
faithlessness; and the hostile spirit of the Mexicans was made plain, by
intelligence that several Spaniards had been slain in repelling an
attack on the garrison of Vera Cruz. Cortez felt that Montezuma’s
forbearance proceeded only from timidity, and that his own best security
lay in working upon that passion. He conceived the daring resolution to
make the king a prisoner in his own capital; judging that, while
Montezuma lived, the Mexicans would not throw off their allegiance, nor
disobey his mandates, though issued under foreign control. He went,
therefore, as usual, to the palace, attended only by a few picked men;
and being admitted without suspicion to the emperor’s presence, he
complained angrily of the attack on the garrison of Vera Cruz, and
required Montezuma, as a pledge of his good faith, to take up his
residence in the Spanish quarters. Betrayed by his own easiness into the
power of a few strangers, Montezuma complied, under the imminent fear of
personal violence. Cortez next required that the officer who commanded
in the attack complained of should be given up. This was done; and he,
his son, and five others, were publicly burnt on a pile of Mexican
weapons, taken from the public armoury. While this atrocious act of
cruelty and revenge was proceeding, the emperor, apparently to render it
the more impressive, was placed in fetters.
Haughty and tyrannical, but unstable and timid, the spirit of Montezuma
was entirely broken by his misfortunes. He remained passively during six
months in his captivity; and formally acknowledged himself a vassal to
the crown of Castile. Religion was the only point on which he was firm.
Cortez urged him with the blind zeal of a crusader to renounce his false
gods, and embrace Christianity; and not content with these importunate
solicitations, he attempted forcibly to remove the idols from the grand
temple. The resolute interference of priests and people compelled him to
desist from the rash project; but not until it had aroused a spirit of
implacable hostility.
Meanwhile Velasquez’s anger at Cortez’s faithlessness was increased by
the brilliant accounts of his success; and having obtained from the
court of Castile a patent constituting himself governor of New Spain, he
prepared to remove or punish his disobedient officer by force of arms.
He sent 900 men, commanded by Narvaez, a brave and experienced officer,
who immediately opened a correspondence with Montezuma. This raised the
hopes of the Mexicans, by showing that their invaders were not exempt
from internal discord. Cortez perceived and met the dangers of his
position with his usual ability and courage. Having tried in vain to
arrange matters with Narvaez by negotiation, he left a garrison of 150
men in Mexico, and marched with only 250 against an enemy who nearly
quadrupled him in number. His skill, the patience of his soldiers,
inured to the inclemency of a tropical climate, and the too great
security of his adversary, won for him an almost bloodless victory; and
the troops sent out for his destruction enlisted almost to a man under
his standard. Placed against all expectation at the head of near a
thousand men, he hastened back to Mexico, where by that time his
presence was urgently required.
He found the Spanish garrison hemmed in, and reduced to extremities, by
a people who, stimulated by superstition and maddened by a fresh and
atrocious outrage, seemed suddenly to have exchanged timidity for
desperation. The return of Cortez with his formidable reinforcement did
not abate their ferocity. Even the person of Montezuma, who was exposed
on the Spanish rampart, ceased to command respect, and he received three
wounds from stones and arrows, from the effects of which, aggravated by
rage and a deep sense of his degradation, he expired. The Mexicans now
sought to blockade their enemies and reduce them by hunger; and, as
Cortez had not the command of the lake, he found it necessary
immediately to evacuate the city. But he was taken at disadvantage in
traversing by night (July 1, 1520) one of the long causeways which
connect the city with the shores of the lake in which it stands; and on
mustering those who reached the mainland, he found his small battalion
of Europeans reduced by one-half, with the loss of all the horses,
baggage, artillery, and most of the treasure which had been amassed by
individual soldiers. The anniversary of this calamity was long, and may
be still, distinguished in New Spain by the appellation of Noche Triste,
the sad night.
By a circuitous route, and not without cutting their way through an
immense army assembled to intercept them, the Spaniards returned to the
friendly Indians of Tlascala, among whom Cortez meant to recruit his
exhausted companions, and to wait until fresh supplies of men and stores
could be obtained from the West India islands. Some vessels which put
into the harbour of Vera Cruz afforded an unexpected reinforcement of
180 men; and on the 28th of December Cortez began to retrace his march
towards Mexico. At Tezeuco, the second city of the empire, situated on
the banks of the lake, about twenty miles from the capital, he
established his head-quarters for four months, during which the timbers
of twelve small vessels, cut out in the mountains of Tlascala, were put
together. This force ensured the command of the lake, for the Mexicans
had nothing larger than canoes; and just before their completion, a
reinforcement of 200 men, with arms and stores, arrived from Hispaniola.
At the beginning of May, 1521, with about 800 Europeans, Cortez
commenced the siege of Mexico itself.
Guatimozin, a nephew of Montezuma, who had succeeded to the throne, made
a resolute defence; and Cortez, aware of the danger of entangling his
troops in the streets, yet anxious to preserve the buildings as a trophy
of his victory, urged the siege with unusual caution. Each day he pushed
his way as far as possible into the city; but he returned to his
quarters at night, during which the barricades of the causeways were
repaired, and on the morrow a fresh battle was to be fought on the same
ground. Thus matters went until the 3d of July, when Cortez, impatient
of so protracted a resistance, made a desperate attempt to carry every
thing before him in one great assault. Experience improved the Mexicans
in the art of war. When the Spaniards, by the energy of their attack,
had forced a way into the heart of the city, Guatimozin led them still
onwards by a show of slackened resistance, while he detached troops, by
land and water, to beset the breaches in the causeway by which it was
necessary for the enemy to retire. At a given signal, the great drum of
the god of war was struck, and the Mexicans returned to the attack,
their hatred of the invaders stimulated by the ferocity of their
superstition. The Spaniards were compelled to give way, and disorder was
converted into absolute rout by the promiscuous onset of the natives,
when they arrived at the breach. Above sixty Europeans perished, for
those who were taken prisoners were offered as sacrifices on the Mexican
altars. After this reverse Cortez took a surer way to success, and as
fast as his troops made a lodgment, he caused the houses to be levelled
with the ground. When three quarters of the city were thus destroyed,
and those who defended the remainder were exhausted by famine and
disease, Guatimozin yielded to the persuasion of those who urged him to
preserve himself, to renew the war in the remote provinces of the
empire. But he was intercepted and captured with his family, as he
sought to escape across the lake; and on the loss of their sovereign,
the Mexicans ceased to resist. The siege thus ended August 13, 1521.
The victors were greatly disappointed in the amount of the precious
metals which fell into their hands. What remained of the royal treasures
Guatimozin had ordered to be thrown into the lake. Much spoil was
carried off by the Indian auxiliaries, and much probably was lost or
destroyed in the ruins of the city. The whole treasure collected was
inferior in amount to that which the Spaniards had formerly received as
a present from Montezuma; and the adventurers clamorously expressed
their dissatisfaction. Pressed by this spirit of discontent, Cortez gave
way to a passion, as alien to that undefined feeling which we call the
spirit of chivalry, as to the natural laws of charity and justice; and
tried, in vain, to extract by torture from the royal prisoner and one of
his favourite followers a discovery of the treasures which were supposed
to be hidden. Overcome by pain, the latter cast a look on his master,
which seemed to ask permission to reveal what he knew. Guatimozin
indignantly replied to the implied entreaty—“Am I reposing on a bed of
flowers?” and the faithful subject kept silence, and died. The emperor,
with his two principal officers, was afterwards hanged, on a groundless
charge of having excited insurrection.
The provinces were readily overrun after the fall of the capital, and
made subject to Spain; though intolerable oppression often produced
insurrections, which were put down with unrelenting severity. Having
conquered an empire without commission from the monarch in whose name he
made war, Cortez narrowly escaped having to answer as a criminal for the
irregularity of his proceedings. But in 1522 he succeeded in procuring a
royal commission, which constituted him captain-general and governor of
New Spain. Still his actions were watched with an ungenerous though
natural jealousy; and his situation became so critical, that he
resolved, in 1528, to return to Castile, and answer, before no inferior
tribunal, such charges as might be urged against him. He appeared with
the splendour which became one who had unlocked the treasures of the New
World; and his own ample fortune, contrasted with the smallness of the
sum divided among his comrades, gave birth to a belief that he had not
dealt fairly in the partition of the spoil. As his return to Spain put
an end to all fears of his ambition, he was received with the favour
which such brilliant services merited. He was invested with the order of
St. Jago, the highest rank of Spanish knighthood; and the valley of
Guaxaca, with an extensive domain, was erected into a marquisate in his
behalf. But he could not obtain what he most desired, the supreme
direction of affairs in Mexico. He returned thither in 1530 at the head
of the military department, and with authority to prosecute new
discoveries; but the direction of civil affairs was vested in a board,
entitled the Audience of New Spain. Henceforward we may regard Cortez as
a disappointed and unhappy man. Thwarted at home by the double authority
established, he sought to reap new glory by exploring the Pacific Ocean;
and in 1536 he discovered the peninsula of California, and surveyed part
of the gulf which separates it from the American continent. But from
that country neither profit nor honour, unless as a geographical
discoverer, could be gained; and the result of the expedition neither
satisfied the expectations of others, nor repaid the adventurers for the
hardships which they underwent. In 1540, wearied and disgusted, Cortez
returned to Spain, and found his services forgotten, or at least his
person slighted. He served as a volunteer in 1541, in Charles V.’s
expedition against Algiers, and had a horse killed under him. This was
his last military action. After wearying his proud spirit in fruitless
attempts to gain attention from Charles or his ministers to his real or
supposed grievances, he retired into seclusion, and died at Seville,
December 2, 1547, in the sixty-third year of his age.
We have passed rapidly over the shocking cruelties which marked the
progress of the Spanish arms. Some portion of the horror, with which we
naturally regard the actors in such events, may be neutralized by the
consideration, that men’s notions in all things, and perhaps most
especially in matters of international justice, are greatly dependent on
the spirit of the time in which they live; and that it is hardly fair to
judge actions, which won the admiration of contemporaries, according to
the standard of a subsequent age. But even in that age there were not
wanting many to raise an indignant voice against the cruelties practised
on an unoffending people; and after every just allowance has been made,
it is not to be doubted that the treatment of the American aborigines
forms a foul stain on the history of Spain, and loads all who were
concerned in it with an awful responsibility; and we willingly
acknowledge it to have been a just retribution, that of the original
settlers few reaped prosperity, repose, or wealth, as the harvest of
their arms. With their leaders it was eminently otherwise. Scarce one of
those who led the conquerors of Peru escaped a violent death in civil
strife; while Cortez (with whom no one divides the fame of conquering
Mexico) lived to experience the proverbial ingratitude of courts, and
died in that forced obscurity which is most galling to an ambitious
mind.
The noble inscription, composed by Southey for the birth-place of
Cortez’s early companion in arms and rival in fame, needs but the change
of name to render it equally applicable to Cortez himself.
“Pizarro here was born—a greater name
The list of Glory boasts not. Toil and Pain,
Famine, and hostile Elements, and Hosts
Embattled, failed to check him in his course,
Not to be wearied, not to be deterred,
Not to be overcome. A mighty realm
He overran, and with relentless arm
Slew or enslaved its unoffending sons,
And wealth, and power, and fame were his rewards.
There is another world beyond the grave,
According to their deeds where men are judged.
O reader! if thy daily bread be earned
By daily labour,—yea, however low,
However wretched be thy lot assigned,
Thank thou, with deepest gratitude, the God
Who made thee, that thou art not such as he.”
[Illustration]
LEIBNITZ.
The materials for this life of Leibnitz are chiefly taken from the
_éloge_ of his contemporary Fontenelle.
Godfrey William Leibnitz was born at Leipzic, June 23, 1646. His father
was Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of that place: he
died when his son was only six years old. Leibnitz’s education therefore
was left to his mother; and the great variety of his studies is traced
to his free access to a large collection of books which his father left.
He thus became a poet, an orator, an historian, a lawyer, a
metaphysician, a mathematician, and a theologian. In some of these
capacities he would not have escaped oblivion; but every accession to
such a mass of titles becomes interesting, when it is remembered how
conspicuous he became in more than one of them.
At the age of twenty he applied to the University of Leipzic for the
degree of doctor of laws. This was refused, on the plea that he was too
young; and he then went to Altdorf, where he maintained a public
disputation, and was admitted to the degree which he desired, with
unusual distinction. From Altdorf he repaired to Nuremberg, where he
heard of a secret society of chemists, or, which was then the same
thing, of searchers after the philosopher’s stone. Desiring to obtain
some insight into their pursuits, he procured some books on chemistry, a
subject which he had never studied, and picking out the phrases which
seemed hardest, he wrote a letter altogether unintelligible to himself,
which he addressed to them as his certificate of qualification. He was
admitted with great honour, and was even offered the post of secretary,
with a salary; and though he continued his intercourse with them for
some time, he kept up his character as an adept to the last.
[Illustration:
_Engraved by B. Holl._
LEIBNITZ.
_From a Picture in the Florence Gallery._
Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge
_London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street._
]
His first work, which appeared when he was twenty-two years old, was a
treatise written under the name of George Vlicorius, recommending the
choice of the Elector Palatine to be King of Poland. In 1670 he
published his first philosophical work, an edition of ‘Marius Nizolius
contra Pseudophilosophos;’ and in the following year two treatises on
abstract and concrete motion, severally dedicated to the French Academy
and the Royal Society.
During his abode at Nuremberg, the Baron de Boinebourg, minister of the
Elector of Mayence, procured a legal appointment for him in that state.
While he held this post he travelled into France and England. After the
death of the Elector, he accepted a similar appointment in the dominions
of the Duke of Brunswick-Lunenberg. At the peace of Nimeguen in 1678 he
wrote upon some disputed ceremonials, under the title of Cesarinus
Furstnerius, and displayed a great extent of reading, and a little of
that speculative spirit which afterwards produced the _pre-established
harmony_. He is said, though a Lutheran, to have argued on the
supposition that Europe was to be considered as a large federation, of
which the Emperor was the temporal, and the Pope the spiritual, head. In
1679 he was engaged by the reigning Duke to write the history of the
House of Brunswick. On this service he went through Germany and Italy in
search of authorities. It is related that, on one occasion, having left
Venice in a small boat, a storm arose, and the boatmen began to discuss
in Italian, which they supposed their passenger did not understand, the
propriety of throwing the heretic overboard. Leibnitz, with great
presence of mind, drew out a rosary, which he had about him _par
précaution_, as Fontenelle supposes, who does not seem to guess that
this anecdote, coupled with what has preceded, makes it at least an even
chance that Leibnitz was really a Catholic. And this is negatively
supported by the fact, that, Lutheran as he was considered, he very
rarely attended the services of his church, in spite of the
publicly-expressed disapprobation of the clergy. But on the other hand,
he positively refused to profess Catholicism, when an advantageous
settlement at Paris was offered on that condition. That he was both a
religious man and a Christian is sufficiently attested by his writings.
He returned from his tour in 1690, and in 1693 published his ‘Codex
Juris Gentium Diplomaticus.’ He had published almost at the same time
with his first work a treatise on the study of jurisprudence. The first
volume of the ‘History of Brunswick’ appeared in 1707, and two others in
1710 and 1711.