B. XII. the appearance of a new-made man. He seemed rather to have come to some high fortune which had been awaiting him from his birth. Any one, however, who has seen the singular dignity and grace of bearing which a Spanish peasant of the present day will manifest, even under difficult circumstances, can easily imagine that a descendant of a good family, with Pizarros and Altamiranos for immediate ancestors, would be very little disconcerted at being suddenly called to sit in the seat of judgment, to dispense rewards amongst obedient followers, and to sway an obsequious people, accustomed to be ruled by monarchs of a like imperious dignity and composure.* man of It is probable that Cortes, partially at least, fulfilled the requisites of that character, one of the rarest to be met with, and very much wanted at that time in the Indies-an admirable man of Cortes as a business. Rare, almost, as great poets,—rarer, business. perhaps, than veritable saints and martyrs,—are consummate men of business. A man, to be excellent in this way, must not only be variously gifted, but his gifts should be nicely proportioned to one another. He must have in a high degree that virtue which men have always found the least pleasant of virtues,-prudence. His prudence, however, will not be merely of a cautious and quiescent order, but that which, being ever actively engaged, is more fitly called discretion than pru Cortes, cap. I. FRCO. DIEGO DE SAYAS, Anales de Aragon, cap. I; and Doc. Ined., tom. 4, *For the descent of Cortes Ch. 1. dence. Such a man must have an almost igno- B. XII. minious love of details, blended (and this is a rare combination) with a high power of imagination, enabling him to look along extended lines of possible action, and put these details in their right places. He requires a great knowledge of character, with that exquisite tact which feels unerringly the right moment when to act. A discreet rapidity must pervade all the movements of his thought and action. He must be singularly free from vanity, and is generally found to be an enthusiast, who has the art to conceal his enthusiasm. son of Cardinal Ximenes, King Ferdinand, Vasco Nuñez, and Cortes are the four men who, in the Comparihistory of the Indies, have been seen to manifest Cortes with other great the greatest powers of business. Las Casas, also, was a very able man, possessing many of the highest faculties for the conduct of affairs. But Cortes probably outshone the rest; and had the Indies been his appanage, instead of a country unrighteously conquered by him, the administration of the Conquest would have been brought to the highest perfection that it could have reached at that period. Amidst the infinite variety of human beings, not merely can no one man be found exactly like another, but no character can be superimposed upon another without large differences being at once discernible. Still there is often a vein of similarity amongst remarkable men which enables us to classify them as belonging to the same order. Cortes, for instance, was of the same order as Charles the Fifth and Augustus Cæsar. Each B. XII. of them had supreme self-possession: the bitterest Ch. 1. misfortune never left them abject; the highest success found them composed to receive it. Each of them, though grave and dignified, was remarkable for affability with all kinds of men. All three were eminently tenacious of their resolves, but, at the same time, singularly amenable to reason—which is, perhaps, the first quality in a ruler. Charles the Fifth was much the least cruel; but the cruelty of the others was never wanton, never capricious, never divorced from policy. They had all three long memories, both of benefits and injuries. They were firm friends, and good masters to their subordinates, but could Cortes not be accused of favouritism. Cortes had, perAugustus haps, more poetry in him than was to be found in Caesar and either of the others. He had the warlike element Fifth. which is discernible in Charles the Fifth, but was resembled Charles the certainly a greater commander, and possessed more readiness and flexibility. Finally, Augustus Cæsar, Cortes, and Charles the Fifth were of that rare order of men in whom there is perpetual growth of character,-who go on learning,—to whom every blunder they commit is a fruitful lesson, with whom there is less that is accidental than is to be observed in the rest of mankind, and of whom humanity, with much to regret, cannot fail to be proud. The characters of great men may be more amply summed up, and more justly appreciated, at the close of their careers; but it seems well, occasionally, to look at them with all the light we can get, in the midst of their labours, and to Occupation of Mexico by the Spaniards. 13 Ch. J. endeavour to see them in the guise in which B. XII. they stood when they were face to face with other great men, and immersed in the contests of life. Such as he has been described above was Cortes at the vigorous age of thirty-five, in the height of his unrivalled career, after one of the most memorable conquests made known to us in history. Cortes with in New This is not the place for mentioning at any length the discoveries and conquests of which Dealings of Cortes now laid the foundation. As was to be other States expected, ambassadors arrived at the Spanish Spain. Camp from neighbouring territories; and Cortes was enabled to give them a most significant illustration of his prowess, by taking them to behold the ruins of Mexico.* Their mode of describing events was pictorial; and here was a scene which, if well portrayed, needed little comment by words or hieroglyphics. of Mexico Cortes now prepared for the occupation of the site of Mexico by his own men, giving the usual Occupation quantities of land (solares) to those who wished to become residents. He then appointed the Spaniards. principal officers, the Alcaldes and Regidores. The building of the town was carried on with such rapidity, that in five months after its commencement, the new Mexico already gave promise of becoming, as the old had been, the principal and "Hícelos llevar á ver la destruccion y asolamiento de la Ciudad de Temixtitan, que de la ver, y de ver su fuerza, y forta | leza, por estar en el Agua, que- employed. 14 Occupation of Mexico by the Spaniards. B. XII. ruling city of those provinces.* It is a remarkCh. 1. able fact that the Tezcucans were largely emTezcucans ployed in this rebuilding, thus fulfilling, at least partially, a prophecy made by the Mexicans in the height of the war. The labour was great, food was very scarce, and numbers of the workmen died from the effects of famine. It is worthy of note that they brought the materials for building on their shoulders, or dragged them along by sheer force, § and their only comfort during these great exertions seems to have been in working to the sound of music. Cortes did not accomplish all these great works without the envy that belongs to such men and such deeds. The white walls of the palaces of Cuyoacan were blackened each morning by Pasquin- malicious pasquinades in poetry and prose. Some ades said that the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the sea, had their courses, and if sometimes against Cortes. ‡ See ante, vol. 2, book 11, "Crea Vuestra Magestad, "Hiço Señor del Cuzco § The great architectural works of nations in the olden time indicate an utter prodigality of human life, and declare the largeness of the despotic power under which men worked. || "El trabajo fué grande; cá traian acuestas, ó arrastrando, la Piedra, la Tierra, la Madera, Cal, Ladrillos, í todos los otros materiales. Pero era mucho de ver los Cantares, í Musica que tenian. El apellidar su Pueblo, í Señor, í el motejarse unos á otros."GOMARA, Crónica de la NuevaEspaña, cap. 162. BARCIA, Historiadores, tom. 2. |