of Cuba, accordingly, sent out an expedition under Grijalva (gre-hahl'vah), who, after exploring the coast of Mexico, returned with a large amount of treasure. The conquest of this rich country was then resolved on; and an expedition was sent out, consisting of eleven vessels and more than six hundred armed men, under the command of Fernando Cortez (1519). This officer was brave and energetic, but treacherous and cruel. Upon landing near Vera Cruz, he was, met by deputations from Montezu'ma, the Mexican emperor, who greeted him in a friendly manner, but endeavored to dissuade him from proceeding to the capital. This, however, Cortez finally reached, and boldly seized the emperor, whom he kept for some time a prisoner. At last the Mexicans turned on their invaders; and Cortez induced Montezuma to dissuade his subjects from hostilities. But they, indignant at his conduct, assaulted him with stones and arrows, so that he soon afterward died of his wounds and of chagrin at his degradation. Finally, with the aid of Indian tribes opposed to the Mexican rule, Cortez completed the conquest of Mexico, which thus became (1521) a Spanish province.-The following account of this event is taken from Robertson's "History of the Discovery and Conquest of America."]

1. THE Mexicans [now discovering Cortez's bloody intentions] resumed their arms with the additional fury which this discovery inspired, attacked a considerable body of Spaniards. who were marching toward the great square in which the public market was held, and compelled them to retire with some loss. Emboldened by this success, and delighted to find that their oppressors were not invincible, they advanced next day with extraordinary martial pomp to assault the Spaniards in their own quarters. Their number was formidable, and their undaunted courage still more so.

2. Though the artillery, pointed against their numerous battalions, crowded together in narrow streets, swept off multitudes at every discharge; though every blow of the Spanish weapons fell with mortal effect upon their naked bodies, the impetuosity of the assault did not abate. Fresh men rushed forward to occupy the places of the slain, and, meeting with the same fate, were succeeded by others no less intrepid and eager for vengeance. The utmost efforts of Cortez's abilities and experience, seconded by the disciplined valor of his troops, were hardly sufficient to defend the fortifications that surrounded the post where the Spaniards were stationed, into which the enemy were more than once on the point of forcing their way.

3. Cortez beheld with wonder the implacable ferocity of a people who seemed at first to submit tamely to the yoke, and had continued so long passive under it. As soon as the ap

proach of evening induced the Mexicans to retire, in compliance with their national custom of ceasing from hostilities with the setting sun, he began to prepare for a sally, next day, with such considerable force as might either drive the enemy out of the city, or compel them to listen to terms of accommodation.

4. Cortez conducted, in person, the troops destined for this important service. Every invention known in the European art of war, as well as every precaution suggested by his long acquaintance with the Indian mode of fighting, were employed to insure success. But he found an enemy prepared and determined to oppose him. The force of the Mexicans was greatly augmented by fresh troops, which poured in continually from the country, and their animosity was in no degree abated. They were led by their nobles, inflamed by the exhortations of their priests, and fought in defence of their temples and families, under the eye of their gods, and in presence of their wives and children.

5. After a day of incessant exertion, though vast numbers of the Mexicans fell, and part of the city was burnt, the Spaniards, weary with the slaughter and harassed by multitudes which successively relieved each other, were obliged at length to retire with the mortification of having accomplished nothing so decisive as to compensate the usual calamity of having twelve soldiers killed and above sixty wounded. Another sally, made with greater force, was not more effectual, and in it the general himself was wounded in the hand.

6. Cortez now perceived, too late, the fatal error into which he had been betrayed by his own contempt of the Mexicans, and was satisfied that he could neither maintain his present station in the centre of a hostile city, nor retire from it without the most imminent danger. One resource still remained, to try what effect the interposition of Montezuma might have to soothe or overawe his subjects. When the Mexicans approached next morning to renew the assault, that unfortunate prince, at the mercy of the Spaniards, and reduced to the sad necessity of becoming the instrument of his own disgrace and of the

slavery of his people, advanced to the battlements in his royal robes, and with all the pomp in which he used to appear on solemn occasions.

7. At sight of their sovereign, whom they had long been accustomed to honor and almost to revere as a god, the weapons dropped from their hands, every tongue was silent, all bowed their heads, and many prostrated themselves on the ground. Montezuma addressed them with every argument that could mitigate their rage or persuade them to cease from hostilities. When he ended his discourse, a sullen murmur of disapprobation ran through the ranks; to this succeeded reproaches and threats; and the fury of the multitude rising in a moment above every restraint of decency or respect, flights of arrows and volleys of stones poured in so violently upon the ramparts, that before the Spanish soldiers appointed to cover Montezuma with their bucklers had time to lift them in his defence, two arrows wounded the unhappy monarch, and the blow of a stone on his temple struck him to the ground.

8. On seeing him fall, the Mexicans were so much astonished, that, with a transition not uncommon in popular tumults, they passed in a moment from one extreme to the other; remorse succeeded to insult, and they fled with horror, as if the vengeance of heaven were pursuing the crime which they had committed. The Spaniards without molestation carried Montezuma to his apartments, and Cortez hastened thither to console him under his misfortune.

9. But the unhappy monarch now perceived how low he was sunk; and the haughty spirit, which seemed to have been so long extinct, returning, he scorned to survive this last humiliation. In a transport of rage, he tore the bandages from his wounds, and refused, with such obstinacy, to take any nourishment, that he soon ended his wretched days, rejecting with disdain all the solicitations of the Spaniards to embrace the Christian faith. Upon the death of Montezuma, Cortez, having lost all hope of bringing the Mexicans to accommodation, saw no prospect of safety but in retreat (1520).

The Discovery of Peru.-Prescott.

[From Prescott's "Conquest of Peru."]

1. WHILE the whole eastern coast of the American continent had been explored, and the central portion of it colonized,— even after the brilliant achievement of the Mexican conquest,the veil was not yet raised that hung over the golden shores of the Pacific. Floating rumors had reached the Spaniards, from time to time, of countries in the far West, teeming with the metal they so much coveted; but the first distinct notice of Peru was about the year 1511, when Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, the discoverer of the Southern Sea, was weighing some gold which he had collected from the natives.

2. A young barbarian chieftain, who was present, struck the scales with his fist, and, scattering the glittering metal around the apartment, exclaimed, "If this is what you prize so much that you are willing to leave your distant homes, and risk even life itself for it, I can tell you of a land where they eat and drink out of golden vessels, and gold is as cheap as iron is with you." It was not long after this startling intelligence that Balboa achieved the formidable adventure of scaling the mountain rampart of the isthmus which divides the two mighty oceans from each other; when, armed with sword and buckler, he rushed into the waters of the Pacific, and cried out, in the true chivalrous vein, that "he claimed this unknown sea, with al that it contained, for the King of Castile, and that he would make good the claim against all, Christian or infidel, who dared to gainsay it." All the broad continent and sunny isles washed by the waters of the Southern Ocean! Little did the bold cavalier comprehend the full import of his magnificent vaunt.

3. On this spot he received more explicit tidings of the Peruvian empire, heard proofs recounted of its civilization, and was shown drawings of the llama, which, to the European eye, seemed a species of the Arabian camel. But, although he steered his caravel for these golden realms, and even pushed his discoveries some twenty leagues south of the Gulf of St.

Michael, the adventure was not reserved for him. The illustrious discoverer was doomed to fall a victim to that miserable jealousy with which a little spirit regards the achievements of a great one.

4. The Spanish colonial domain was broken up into a number of petty governments, which were dispensed sometimes to court favorites; though, as the duties of the post, at this early period, were of an arduous nature, they were more frequently reserved for men of some practical talent and enterprise. Columbus, by virtue of his original contract with the Crown, had jurisdiction over the territories discovered by himself, embracing some of the principal islands, and a few places on the continent. . . .

5. These colonial governments were multiplied with the increase of empire, and by the year 1524 were scattered over the islands, along the Isthmus of Darien, the broad tract of Terra Firma, and the recent conquests of Mexico. Some of these governments were of no great extent. Others, like that of Mexico, were of the dimensions of a kingdom; and most had an indefinite range for discovery assigned to them in their immediate neighborhood, by which each of the petty potentates might enlarge his territorial sway, and enrich his followers and himself. . . . .

6. Floating rumors of the wealth and civilization of a mighty nation at the South were continually reaching the ears and kindling the dreamy imaginations of the colonists; and it may seem astonishing that an expedition in that direction should have been so long deferred. But the exact position and distance of this fairy realm were matter of conjecture. The long tract of intervening country was occupied by rude and warlike races; and the little experience which the Spanish navigators had already had of the neighboring coast and its inhabitants, and still more, the tempestuous character of the seas-for their expeditions had taken place at the most unpropitious seasons of the year,-enhanced the apparent difficulties of the undertaking, and made even their stout hearts shrink from it.

7. Such was the state of feeling in the little community of