popularity of the victorious chief,
sent commissioners to watch his conduct and thwart his proceedings; and
whilst he was completing the conquest of New Spain his goods were seized
by the fiscal of the Council of the Indies, and his retainers imprisoned
and put into irons. Indignant at the ingratitude of his sovereign,
Cortes returned in person to Spain to appeal to the justice of the
emperor, and appeared there with great splendour. The emperor received
him with every mark of distinction, and decorated him with the order of
St Iago. Cortes returned to Mexico with new titles but diminished
authority, a viceroy having been entrusted with the administration of
civil affairs, whilst the military department, with permission to push
his conquests, was all that remained to Cortes. This division of powers
became a source of continual dissension, and caused the failure of the
last enterprises in which he engaged. Nevertheless, in 1536, he
discovered the peninsula of Lower California, and surveyed a part of the
gulf which separates it from Mexico.

At length, tired of struggling with adversaries unworthy of him, whom
the court took care to multiply, he returned to Europe, hoping to
confound his enemies. But Charles V. received him coldly. Cortes
dissembled, redoubled the assiduity of his attendance on the emperor,
accompanied him in the disastrous expedition to Algiers in 1541, served
as a volunteer, and had a horse killed under him. This was his last
appearance in the field, and if his advice had been followed the Spanish
arms would have been saved from disgrace, and Europe delivered nearly
three centuries earlier from the scourge of organized piracy. Soon
afterwards he fell into neglect, and could scarcely obtain an audience.
The story goes that, having forced his way through the crowd which
surrounded the emperor's carriage, and mounted on the door-step,
Charles, astonished at an act of such audacity, demanded to know who he
was. "I am a man," replied the conqueror of Mexico proudly, "who has
given you more provinces than your ancestors left you cities." So
haughty a declaration of important services ill-requited could scarcely
fail to offend a monarch on whom fortune had lavished her choicest
favours. Cortes, overwhelmed with disgust, withdrew from court, passed
the remainder of his days in solitude, and died, near Seville, on the
2nd of December 1547.

The only writings of Cortes are five letters on the subject of his