er help wishing that? Yet would it have been
better for the world if the Peruvians had succeeded in expelling the
Spaniards, or would it have been worse? These questions afford matter
for interesting speculation.

{115}

IV

The Greatest Adventure in History

I. The Chief of all the Soldiers of Fortune

At the close of the fifteenth century, to be exact, in the year 1500,
in the town of Painala, in the Province of Coatzacualco, one of the
feudatory divisions of the great Aztec empire of Mexico, there was born
a young girl who was destined to exercise upon the fortunes of her
country an influence as great as it was baleful, as wonderful as it was
unfortunate. She was the daughter of the Cacique of Tenepal, who was
Lord of the town and province, a feoff of the Mexican Emperor Montezuma
Xocoyotzin. This was the second Montezuma who had occupied the
imperial throne and his last name means "The Younger," which he adopted
to distinguish him from his predecessor in the empire.

This Lord of Painala, whose name has been forgotten, unfortunately for
his country departed this life soon after the birth of his daughter,
who was called Malinal because she was born on the twelfth day of the
month, her name indicating that fact. His property naturally devolved
upon the young daughter. Her mother assumed the office of guardian and
regent of the state. This lady, whose name has also been lost in
oblivion, did not long remain single. After her second marriage, which
apparently took place with a somewhat indecent hurry, there was born to
{116} her and her new consort, a young son. To secure to this son the
inheritance, she sold her little daughter, too young to realize the
unfortunate transaction, to some traders of Xicalango, who in turn
disposed of her to a coast tribe of Aztecs called the Tabascans. She
lived in bondage with the Tabascans until she was nineteen years old.
She developed into a woman of rare beauty and unusual intellect.
Something of the power of high birth was evidently hers, for she
escaped the degrading servitude of the time, and was carefully trained
and prepared for some higher purpose. This girl was to be the
instrument of the downfall of her native land.

Now it happened that when Malinal was nineteen years old, the rumor of
a strange visitation ran up and down the shore among the people who
dwelt upon the great Gulf of Mexico. Some remarkable beings, the like
of whom had never been se