After six months' occupation of Mexico, when the danger of the Spaniards had increased, 18 ships with 80 horserneu, 800 infantry, 120 cross-bowmen, and 12 pieces of artillery, were sent uuder Paumhile de Narvaez by Velasquez against Cortes. Cortes, deriving fresh courage from his disappointment and Indignation, persuaded Monte zuma that he was going to meet his friends. Leaving him mid the capital In charge of Pedro de Alvarado with only 150 men, he marched with 250 against Narvaez, attacked him in the dead of night near Zemposlla, made him prisoner, and with the new army hastened back to Mexico, which bad revolted in his absence. Although he resumed his former position there, be had soon to maintain a desperate conflict, and to retreat for safety after Montezuma had perished in attempting to appease his subjects. This success of the Mexicans led to their total defeat In the battle which they fought and lost in the plain of Oternpan, or Otumba, July 7, 1520. This victory marbled Cortes to subdue some of the neighbouring territories with the assistance of the Tiescalans, to attach 10,000 more of them to his service, to attack Mexico again six months alter his retreat, and to retake it the 18th of August 1521, after seventy five days of fierce and almost daily fighting. The ',retie, s once more reduced to despair rose again, and again they yielded to superior discipline, though on no occasion did Dative Americans so bravely oppose European troops. Thus a daring adven turer, regarded and treated by his countrymen as a rebel, after a bloody struggle, gained possession of a country which for more than three centuries formed one of the brightest gems in the Castilinn crown. The atrocitlea of Cortes were of the most terrible and merciless character; but it has been pleaded in extenuation of them that he was a soldier by profession, sud while the Inquisition burnt Jews and Protestants in Spain, he could learn from his chaplains no other or better means of converting heathens than by fire and the sword : and to a certain extent the plea may bo admitted.
Indignant at the ingratitude of Charles V., who listened to his enemies. Cortea returned to Spain in 1528 to face his accusers. He
was received with much respect, and made Marquis of the rich Valle de Oajaca ; but in 1530 had to return to Mexico, divested of civil power. Being auxious, after his military exploits, to extend his fame by maritime discovery, particularly in the opening of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, he fitted out at his own expense different expeditions, one of which discovered California in 1535, and he himself coasted next year bath sides of the gulf of that name, then called the Sea of Cortes. He returned to Spain in 1540, when he was received by Charles V. with cold civility, and by his ministers with insolent neglect. He accompanied however this prince in 1541 as a volunteer in the disastrous expedition to Algiers, and his advice, had it been listened to, would have saved the Spanish arms from disgrace, and delivered Europe three centuries earlier from maritime barbarians. Envied and ill-requited by the court, Cortex withdrew from it, leaving sycophants and intriguers to reap the fruits of his labours and his genius. He died however in affluence near Seville, on the 2nd of December 1547, in the sixty-third year of his age. Cortes, with all his reckless cruelty, was unquestionably a man of remarkable genius— one of the heroes of Old Spain. The destruction of his fleet at Vera Cruz, with the object of compelling his followers to conquer or die— his fearless entry into Mexico—the still bolder seizure of Montezuma in his own palace—his defeat of Narvaez —hie victory of Otumbe.— and his magnanimity in the siege of Mexico—are deeds which read more like romance than reality.
Robertson has estimated the character of Cortes at least as highly as his own co'entrymen—Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Gemara, Herrera, Solis, Lorenzana (who published in 1770 a 'History of New Spain,' founded on the only writings of Cortes, which consist of four letters to Charles V.), and Trueba. The valuable ' History of the Conquest of Mexico,' by Prescott, will supply the general reader with sufficient materials to estimate fairly the character and genius of Cortes.