whole army took a part in the
solemnities of the occasion, with all the martial and ecclesiastical
pomp which their situation could furnish. The natives in countless
multitudes joined the procession, and gazed with astonishment upon the
scene. Advancing to the principal pyramidal temple of Tabasco, which
was an enormous structure, with a vast area upon its summit, they
wound around its sides in the ascent. Upon this lofty platform,
beneath the unclouded sun, with thousands of Indians crowding the
region around to witness the strange spectacle, a Christian altar was
reared, the images of the Savior and of the Virgin were erected, and
mass was celebrated. Clouds of incense rose into the still air, and
the rich voices of the Spanish soldiers swelled the solemn chant. It
must have been an impressive scene. There must have been some there
into whose eye the tear of devotion gushed. If there were in that
throng--all of whom have long since gone to judgment--one single
broken and contrite heart, that was an offering which God could
accept. Father Olmedo preached upon the occasion "many good things
touching our holy faith." Twenty Indian girls who had been given to
the Spanish captains for wives were baptized.

Cortez having thus, in the course of a week, annexed the whole of
these new provinces of unknown extent to Spain, and having converted
the natives to Christianity, prepared for his departure. The natives,
among their propitiatory offerings, had presented to Cortez, as we
have mentioned, twenty young and beautiful females whom they had
captured from hostile tribes, or who in other ways had become their
slaves. Cortez distributed these unenlightened maidens among his
captains, having first selected one of the youngest and most beautiful
of them, Marina, for his wife. Cortez had a worthy spouse upon his
plantation at Cuba. No civil or religious rites sanctioned this
unhallowed union; and he was sufficiently instructed to know that he
was sinning against the laws of both God and man; but the conscience
of this extraordinary adventurer had become involved in labyrinths
utterly inexplicable. He seemed to judge that he was doing so much for
the cause of Holy Mother Church that his own private sins were of
little comparative moment. His many good deeds, he appeared to think,
purchased ample indulgence.

But Marina was a noble woman. The relation which she sustained to
Cortez did no violence to her instincts or to her conscienc