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barbarian, nor the dejection of a supplicant. "I have done," said he, addressing himself to the Spanish general, “what be came a monarch; I have defended my people to the last extremity nothing now remains but to die ;-take this dagger," laying his hand on one Cortes wore, "plant it in my breast, and put an end to a life that can no longer be of use."

537. As soon as the fate of their sovereign was known, all resistance on the part of the Mexicans ceased; and Cortes took possession of the remaining part of the city. Thus terminated the siege of Mexico, the most memorable event in the conquest of America. It continued seventy-five days, not one of which passed without some extraordinary effort of one party in at tacking, or of the other in defending, a city, on the fate of which both parties knew that of the empire depended. The struggle here was more obstinate, and more equal, than any between the inhabitants of the Old and New Worlds.

538. The great abilities of Guatimozin, the number of his troops, the peculiar situation of his capital, so far counterbal anced the superiority of the Spaniards in arms and discipline, that they must have relinquished the enterprise, if they had trusted to themselves alone. But Mexico was overturned by the jealousy of neighbors, who dreaded its power, and by the revolt of subjects impatient to throw off the yoke. By their effectual aid, Cortes was enabled to accomplish what, witheat such support, he would hardly have ventured to attempt. Great merit is due to the abilities of Cortes, who, under every disad vantage, acquired such an ascendency over unknown nations, as to render them instruments towards carrying his schemes into execution.

539. The exultation of the Spaniards, on accomplishing this arduous enterprise, was at first excessive. But it was quickly damped by the disappointment of those sanguine hopes, which had animated them amidst so many hardships and dangers. Instead of the inexhaustible wealth which they expected from be coming masters of Montezuma's treasures, and the ornaments of so many temples, they could only collect an inconsiderable booty, amidst ruins and desolation. According to the account of Cortes, the whole amount was only 120,000 dollars, a sum far inferior to that which the Spaniards had formerly divided in Mexico. This sum, when divided among the conquerors, was so small, that many of them disdained the pittance that fell to their share.

540. Guatimozin, aware of his impending fate, had ordered what had remained of the riches amassed by his ancestors, to

be thrown into the lake. Cortes, from an anxious desire to check the growing discontent among his followers, gave way to a deed which stained the glory of all his great actions. Without regarding the former dignity of Guatimozin, or feeling any rev. erence for those virtues which he had displayed, he subjected the unhappy monarch, together with his chief favorite, to torture, in order to enforce them to a discovery of the royal trea. sures, which it was supposed they had concealed.

541. Guatimozin bore whatever the refined cruelty of his tormentors could inflict with invincible fortitude; but his fellow sufferer, overcome by the violence of the anguish, turned a dejected inquiring eye towards his master, and seemed to implore his permission to reveal all that he knew. The highspirited prince, darting on him a look of authority, mingled with scorn, checked his weakness by asking, "Am I now reposing on a bed of flowers?" Overawed by the reproach, he persevered in his dutiful silence, and expired. Cortes, ashamed of a scene so horrid, rescued the royal victim from the hands of his torturers, and prolonged a life reserved for new indignities and sufferings.

542. The provinces now submitted to the conquerors. Small detachments of Spaniards marched through them, without interruption, and penetrated in different quarters to the great southern ocean, which, according to the ideas of Columbus, they imagined would open a short and easy passage to the East Indies. The active mind of Cortes began already to form schemes for attempting this important discovery. He was ig norant that this very scheme had been undertaken and accomplished, during the progress of his victorious arms in Mexico.

CHAPTER VIII.

MAGELLAN SAILS FROM SEVILLE

543. Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese gentleman of honorable birth, having received ill treatment from his general and sovereign, in a transport of resentment formally renounced his allegiance to an ungrateful master, and fled to the court of Castile, in hopes that his worth would be more justly estimated. He revived Columbus's original and favorite project, of disCardinal covering a passage to India by a western course. Ximenes listened to it with a most favorable ear. Charles V., on his arrival in his Spanish dominions, entered into the measure with no less ardor, and orders were issued for equipping a proper squadron at the public charge, of which the command

was given to Magellan, whom the king honored with the habit of St. Jago, and the title of captain-general, A. D. 1517.

544. On the tenth of August, 1519, Magellan sailed from Seville, with five ships, which were deemed at that time of considerable force; though the largest of them did not exceed one hundred and twenty tons burden: the crew of the whole amounted to two hundred and thirty-four men, including some of the most skilful pilots in Spain, and several Portuguese sailors, in whom Magellan placed the utmost confidence.

545. After touching at the Canaries, he stood directly south, to the equinoctial line, and then to the coast of America. He did not reach the river de la Plata till the twelfth of January, 1520. That spacious body of water allured him to enter into it, but after sailing for some days, he concluded, from the shallowness of the stream, and its freshness, that the wished-for strait was not situated there.

546. On the 31st of March he arrived in the port of St. Julian, about 48 degrees of south latitude, where he resolved to winter. In this uncomfortable station he lost one of his squadron, and the Spaniards suffered so much from the inclemency of the climate, that the crews of three of the ships, headed by their officers, rose in open mutiny, and insisted on relinquishing the visionary project of a desperate adventurer, and returning directly to Spain. This dangerous insurrection Magellan wisely suppressed, by an effort of courage no less prompt than intrepid and inflicted the most exemplary punishment on the ringleaders.

547. With the remainder of his followers, overawed but not reconciled to his scheme, he continued his voyage toward the south, and at length discovered, near the fifty-third degree of latitude, the mouth of a strait, into which he entered, notwithstanding the murmurs of the people under his command. After sailing twenty days in that winding and dangerous channel, to which he gave his own name, and where one of his ships deserted him, the great southern ocean opened to his view; and with tears of joy, he returned thanks to heaven, for having thus far crowned his endeavors with success.

548. He continued to sail in a north-west direction three months and twenty days, without discovering land; in this voyage, the longest that had ever been made on the unbounded ocean, he suffered incredible distress. His stock of provisions was almost exhausted, the water became putrid, the men were reduced to the shortest allowance, with which it was possible to sustain life; and the scurvy began to spread among them. One

circumstance alone afforded consolation. They enjoyed an uninterrupted succession of fair weather, with such favorable winds, that Magellan bestowed the name of Pacific on that ocean, which it still retains.

549. They would have soon sunk under their sufferings, had they not discovered and fell in with a cluster of islands, whose fertility afforded them refreshments in such abundance, that their health was soon re-established. From these isles, to which he gave the name of the Ladrones, he proceeded on his voyage, and soon made a more important discovery of the islands now known by the name of the Philippines; in one of these he got into an unfortunate quarrel with the natives, who attacked him with a numerous body of troops well armed; and while he fought at the head of his men with his usual valor, he fell by the hands of those barbarians, together with several of his principal officers.

550. Other persons took the command, and after touching at several other islands in the Indian Ocean, they at length landed at Tidore, one of the Moluccas, to the astonishment of the Portuguese, who could not comprehend how the Spaniards, by holding a westerly course, had arrived at that sequestered seat of their valuable commerce, which they had discovered by sailing in an opposite direction. There, and in the adjacent isles, they found a people acquainted with the benefit of trade, and pleased with opening an intercourse with a new nation.

551. They took in a cargo of valuable spices: with that and other specimens of rich commodities which they had collected from other countries, they loaded the Victory, which, of the two ships that remained, was the most fit for a long voyage, and set sail for Spain, under the command of Juan Sebastian del Cano. He followed the course of the Portuguese by the cape of Good Hope; and after many sufferings, he arrived at St. Lucar on the 7th of September, 1522, having sailed round the globe in the space of three years and twenty-eight days.

552. To return to the transactions of New Spain: At the time that Cortes was acquiring such vast territories, for his sovereign, and preparing the way for future conquests, it was his singular fate, not only to be destitute of any commission or authority from the sovereign whom he served with such successful zeal, but was regarded as an undutiful and seditious subject. By the influence of Fonseca, bishop of Burgos, his conduct, in assuming the government of New Spain, was declared to be an irregular usurpation, in contempt of the royal authority; and Cristoval de Tapia was commissioned to supersede Cortes, to

seize his person, confiscate his effects, make a strict scrutiny into his proceedings, and transmit the result of his inquiries to the court of the Indies, of which the bishop of Burgos was president.

553. Tapia landed a few weeks after the reduction of Mexico, at Vera Cruz, with the royal mandate to divest its conqueror of his power, and treat him as a criminal. But Fonseca had chosen a very improper person to wreak his vengeance on Cortes. Tapia had neither the reputation, nor the talents, that suited the high command to which he had been appointed. Cortes, while he publicly expressed the highest veneration for the emperor's authority, secretly took measures to defeat the effect of his commission: and having involved Tapia and his followers in a multiplicity of conferences and negotiations, sometimes making use of threats, but more frequently employing bribes and promises, he at length prevailed on that weak man to abandon a province he was unworthy of governing.

554. But Cortes was so sensible of the precarious tenure by which he held his power, that he dispatched deputies to Spain with a pompous account of the success of his arms, with further specimens of the productions of the country, and with rich presents to the emperor,.as the earnest of future contributions from his new conquests; requesting as a recompense for all his services, the approbation of his proceedings, and that he might be intrusted with the government of those territories which his conduct, and the valor of his followers, had added to the crown of Castile.

555. The account of Cortes' victories filled his countrymen with admiration. The public voice declared loudly in favor of his pretensions, and Charles adopted the sentiments of his subjects with a youthful ardor. He appointed him captain-general and governor of New Spain. But it was not without difficulty that the Mexican empire could be entirely reduced into the form of a Spanish colony. Enraged and rendered desperate by oppression, the natives often forgot the superiority of their enemies; and took up arms in defence of their liberties. In every contest, however, the European valor and discipline prevailed but fatally for the honor of their country, the Spaniards sullied the glory redounding from their repeated victories, by their mode of treating the vanquished.

556. In almost every province of the Mexican empire, the progress of the Spanish arms is marked with blood, and with deeds so atrocious, as disgrace the enterprising valor that conducted them to success. In the province of Panuco, sixty ca

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