-was adopted as a matter of policy and resulted in the
foundation of many lines which have continued to the present day.

Though there is no typical Aztec woman to present as representative of
her sex and country, there is one whose name is so welded with the
history of the fall of the Aztec power that a brief sketch of her story
may be given here. She was of Mexican birth, but had been sold by her
unprincipled mother as a slave, the mother thereby securing for her son
by a second marriage the estate which would otherwise have fallen to the
girl. When Cortes reached his first harbor on his road to Tenochtitlan,
as the Aztec capital was called, the cacique of Tabasco presented him
with several slaves, among whom was this girl, called by the Spaniards
Dona Marina, and by the Mexicans Malinche. She was of great beauty and
of a high degree of intelligence, and she soon came within the notice of
Cortes by acting as interpreter for him when he was embarrassed by his
inability to communicate with the Aztec embassy. She did not at that
time speak Spanish, but she managed to interpret through an
intermediary, and she soon became proficient in the language of the men
with whom her lot was now thrown, from one of whom she learned more than
the Castilian tongue.

The beauty of the young girl, whose charms are said by Spanish writers
to have been extraordinary, soon captivated the heart of Cortes, and he
first made her his secretary and then his mistress. At least so the
fashion of our time would term her, but there can be little doubt that
in the eyes of Marina, reared amid traditions of polygamy, there was
nothing of wrong in her union with Cortes, and it may be noted that such
a good and moral man as Father Olmedo had for her no word of reproof but
rather of blessing. At all events, she openly lived with Cortes as his
wife and by him had a son, Don Martin Cortes, acknowledged by his
father, and who afterward became comendador of the Military Order of
Saint lago.

Marina was a loving, faithful, tenderhearted woman, and she was in all
ways true to her Spanish lover and to his countrymen, frequently
extricating them from grave difficulties by her advice, given with
knowledge of the natures as well as customs of the Mexicans. Perhaps
this was only to be expected; but it is remarkable, and speaks volumes
for her character, that she was always held in affectionate honor by the
Mexicans themselves, though she dwelt in the camp of thei