t
Hispaniola.--Cortez's courage.--The island of Cuba.--The new governor.
--The filibustering expedition.--Resistance.--Hatuey condemned to
death.--His conversation.--The colony.--The conspiracy.--Cortez
imprisoned.--He flees to a church.--Arrest and escape.--Cortez is
pardoned.--His marriage.--Voyage of discovery.--Discoveries.--
Disasters.--Reports from Yucatan.--Another expedition.--It arrives
at Mexico.--Accounts from Montezuma.--The golden hatchets.--Reports
carried to Spain.--Cortez obtains a commission.--His enthusiasm.--
Mission and means.--The governor alarmed.--Attempt to deprive Cortez
of the command.--The squadron sails.--Cortez and the governor.--St.
Jago and Trinidad.--The standard.--Providential gifts.--Orders to
arrest Cortez.--His speech.--The result.--Cortez writes to Velasquez.
--The squadron proceeds to Cape Antonio.--The armament.--Personal
appearance of Cortez.--The eve of departure.--The harangue.--Result
of the speech.--The squadron sails.

In the interior of Spain, in the midst of the sombre mountains whose
confluent streams compose the waters of the Guadiana, there reposes
the little village or hamlet of Medellin. A more secluded spot it
would be difficult to find. Three hundred and seventy years ago, in
the year 1485, Hernando Cortez was born in this place. His ancestors
had enjoyed wealth and rank. The family was now poor, but proud of the
Castilian blood which flowed in their veins. The father of Hernando
was a captain in the army--a man of honorable character. Of his mother
but little is known.

Not much has been transmitted to our day respecting the childhood
of this extraordinary man. It is reported that he early developed
a passion for wild adventure; that he was idle and wayward; frank,
fearless, and generous; that he loved to explore the streams and
to climb the cliffs of his mountainous home, and that he ever
appeared reckless of danger. He was popular with his companions, for
warm-heartedness and magnanimity were prominent in his character.

His father, though struggling with poverty, cherished ambitious views
for his son, and sent him to the celebrated university of Salamanca
for an education. He wished Hernando to avoid the perils and
temptations of the camp, and to enter the honorable profession of the
law. Hernando reluctantly obeyed the wishes of his father, and went
to the university. But he scorned restraint. He despised all the
employments of industry, and study was his