BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
1511 to 1519.
There is perhaps no page in modern history so full of dramatic incidents and useful consequences, as that which records the discovery, conquest and development of America by the Spanish and Anglo Saxon races. The extraordinary achievements of Columbus, Cortếz, Pizarro, and Washington, have resulted in the acquisition of broad lands, immense wealth, and rational liberty; and the names of these heroes are thus indissolubly connected with the physical and intellectual progress of mankind.
In the following pages we propose to write the history, and depict the manners, customs and condition of Mexico. Our narrative begins with the first movements that were made for the conquest of the country; yet, we shall recount, fully and accurately, the story of those Indian princes,—the splendor of whose courts, and the misery of whose tragic doom, enhance the picturesque grandeur and solemn lessons that are exhibited in the career of Hernando Cortéz.
