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Magellan had formerly spent several years in the East Indies, so that in making his way across the Pacific to the Philippines he had really completed the circumnavigation of the world and had settled forever the great question as to the size and shape of the earth.

The next great navigator to complete the journey round the world was Sir Francis Drake, fifty years later. Drake met with difficulties and hardships very similar in some respects to those of Magellan.

One result of Magellan's voyage was to bring the Philippine Islands under the control of Spain. Portugal tried to claim them as a part of the East Indies but they were taken and held by the Spaniards till 1898, when, after the victory of Admiral Dewey in Manila Bay, they became a possession of the United States.

CHAPTER IX

HERNANDO CORTES 1

STILL believing that the new country discovered by Columbus was near Cipango and Cathay, the Spaniards dreamed of finding great cities and untold wealth. Many searched for these marvels and at last one man found something more wonderful, perhaps, than these dreams.

In the year 1504 a young man named Hernando Cortes, a native of Spain, came to the Indies in search of adventure. He fought bravely under Velasquez in the conquest of Cuba in 1511. Later he was made chief judge of the newly founded town of Santiago. In the year 1518, hearing of the wonderful cities seen by Cordova on the peninsula of Yucatan, he persuaded Velasquez to give him command of a fleet fitted up for further exploration and conquest. These cities of which he had heard had strange-looking towers or pyramids, and the people were dressed in garments of cotton and wore gold ornaments, cloaks of feathers, and plumes. Then a nephew of Velasquez, sailing along the coast, met a native who told him wonderful stories of his chief, Montezuma,

1 Authorities: Fiske and Prescott.

who lived far up in the country and ruled over many cities and had no end of gold. This doubtless was the Great Khan and wealth and fame would belong to the brave men who should

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conquer him.

Before Cortes was well started upon his adventures, Velasquez began to fear that he would prove too independent in case he found a treasure and sent two messages to call him back. Cortes paid no attention to the messengers but calmly went on his way. Early in March,

CORTES

1519, he landed at

Tabasco on the coast of Yucatan. Finding the natives. unfriendly, he attacked and defeated them. Seizing a supply of provisions, he went to San Juan de Ulloa, where he sent gifts to Montezuma in the name of his sovereign, Charles V.

Montezuma was the chief of the Aztecs, who had built their chief city, or pueblo, in a well-protected place in the

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marshes by Lake Tezcuco. This pueblo was begun in the year 1325 and was called Tenochtitlan, which means place of the cactus rock." An old legend says that the Aztecs, fleeing from their foes, took refuge in these marshes. Here they found a stone upon which, some years before, one of their chiefs had sacrificed a captive chief. From a crevice in this stone, where a little earth. was embedded, there grew a cactus, upon which sat an eagle holding in its beak a serpent. Their priest said this meant long and continued victory.

Diving into the lake

he talked with the god of waters, who told him that upon this spot the people were to build their town. The name under which it was best known later was taken from Mexitl, one of the names of their war god.1

This pueblo was surrounded by marshes, which, by means of dikes and causeways, the Aztecs gradually made into a large artificial lake. In this stronghold, the Aztecs grew stronger than any of the neighboring tribes. With some of these tribes they formed an alliance, while they subdued others and demanded tribute from them. They had elected "a chief of men" who was war chief of the allied tribes. Montezuma, the present chief, was about fifty years old at the time the Spaniards reached Mexico and was a man of much influence among his people. He had heard of the won

1 Fiske's "Discovery of America.”

derful towers with wings, moving lightly on the sea, and of the men with white faces and shining raiment, and thought they might be gods, perhaps the emissaries of the sun god, for whom they had waited so long.

The Aztecs worshipped a god of good and one of evil. To the evil one they offered human sacrifices to keep him good-natured. Between Quetzalcoatl, the good god, and Tezcatlipoca, the evil god, there was endless warfare. "The latter deity had once been the sun, but Quetzalcoatl had knocked him out of the sky with a big club, and jumping into his place had become the sun instead of him. Tezcatlipoca, after tumbling into the sea, rose again in the night sky as the Great Bear, and so things went on for a while, until suddenly the Evil One changed himself into a tiger, and with a blow of his paw struck Quetzalcoatl from the sky." Long was the struggle between these two gods, say the old legends, but finally Quetzalcoatl was outwitted and obliged to forsake the land. With a few young friends he had gone to the eastern shore. Here he bade them good-by, saying that he must go farther, but would return. some day from the east, with men as fair skinned as himself, and would take possession of the country. His coming would, of course, do away with the sacrifice of human beings, as he believed that the perfume of flowers

1 Fiske's "Discovery of America."

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