recked upon some rocks. He, however, got them both off, repaired
them, and brought them, laden with provisions, to the half-famished
colony at Santa Cruz.

The imprudent colonists ate so voraciously that a fatal disease broke
out among them, which raged with the utmost virulence. Many died.
Cortez became weary of these scenes of woe. The expedition, in a
pecuniary point of view, had been a total failure, and it had secured
for the conqueror no additional renown. The Marchioness of the Valley,
the wife of Cortez, became so anxious at the long absence of her
husband, that she fitted out two ships to go in search of him. Ulloa,
who commanded these ships, was so fortunate as to trace Cortez to his
colony. Cortez not unwillingly yielded to the solicitations of his
wife and returned to Mexico. He was soon followed by the rest of the
wretched colonists, and thus disastrously terminated this expedition.

In these various enterprises, Cortez had expended from his private
property over three hundred thousand crowns, and had received nothing
in return. As he considered himself the servant of his sovereign, and
regarded these efforts as undertaken to promote the glory and the
opulence of Spain, he resolved to return to Castile, to replenish,
if possible, his exhausted resources from the treasury of the crown.
He had also sundry disputes with the authorities in Mexico which
he wished to refer to the arbitration of the emperor. He was a
disappointed and a melancholy man. His career had been one of violence
and of blood, and "his ill fortune," says Diaz, "is ascribed to the
curses with which he was loaded."

Taking with him his eldest son and heir, Don Martin, the child of
Donna Marina, then but eight years of age, and leaving behind him the
rest of his family, he embarked in 1540 again to return to his native
land. The emperor was absent, but Cortez was received by the court and
by the nation with the highest testimonials of respect. Courtesy was
lavished upon him, but he could obtain nothing more. For a year the
unhappy old man pleaded his cause, while daily the victim of hope
deferred. He might truly have said with Cardinal Wolsey,

"Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies."

Cortez soon found himself neglected and avoided. His importunities
became irksome. Two or three years of disappointment and gloom passed
heavily away, when, i