been acquired by legitimate methods, and the royal fifth not only duly set aside, but largely increased by contribution of the finest specimens. If they had not reached the sovereign, the bishop of Búrgos must be held answerable. The fifth assigned to the commander was in consideration for his services and heavy expenses. The torture of the princes was an act of the army, headed by the royal treasurer, and the employment of natives to rebuild the city of Mexico was a measure demanded by the public interests. The arrival of Tapia tended to involve the country in perils similar to those aroused by Narvaez, so much so that the delegates of the colonists and army took his disposal into their own hands, confident that the sovereign would confirm an act dictated in his own interest. Indeed, none but Cortés, with skill and judgment as a general and governor, could have undertaken the conquest and carried it to a successful end, through so many dangers, unsupported by any one save his own followers and his own resources of mind and means, and this in the face of the bitter opposition of Velazquez, Fonseca, and their adherents, who kept back recruits and supplies, seized remittances, withheld his reports and agents, promoted revolts, and misrepresented his every motive and act. The letters from himself, the army, the officials. Friar Olmedo, and others, were filled with proofs of his ability and loyal devotion, while immense domains, larger than any so far acquired for the crown, and teeming with wealth and vassals, stood as eloquent witnesses of his achievements, ever glorious to Spanish fame.[1]
What could be more grand and flattering to the Spanish nation than the quality and extent of this
- ↑ These and other arguments are produced in Herrera, dec. iii. lib. iv. cap. iii.; Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 184-6; Gomara, Hist. Mex., 238-9, this latter, strange enough, giving the charges pretty fully, but disposing of the defence with the brief remark: 'Los descargos, razon y justicia que tuuo Cortes . . . la historia las cuenta.' From these sources later writers form their account.
