Cortes, HERNANDO, the conqueror of Mexico, was born at Medellín, in Estremadura, in 1485, of a noble but decayed family. The longing for adventure which early filled his heart was not cured by two years' study at Salamanca. He sailed for San Domingo in 1504, and ere long accompanied Velazquez in his expedition to Cuba. After the island had been subdued he came into serious disfavour with the governor, but was reconciled, and became alcalde in the capital, Santiago. The discovery by De Córdoba of Yucatan, and of New Spain (Mexico) by Grijalva, had already fired the ambitious mind of Velazquez, when Pedro de Alvarado, who had been despatched by Grijalva, arrived at Cuba; and his glowing accounts filled the governor with a fresh thirst for gain and glory. He hastened to fit out a new expedition, the command of which he gave to Cortes. Cortes sailed 18th November 1518, and one of the most romantic chapters in the history of the world began. The armament with which he entered on the conquest of a vast and civilised empire consisted, according to Bernal Diaz, of five hundred and fifty Spaniards, two or three hundred Indians, twelve or fifteen horses, with ten brass guns and some falconets. Scarcely had he touched at Trinidad when orders from Velazquez to supersede him reached the island. These Cortes refused to obey, and thus cut himself off from all hope save in success. He landed first in Yucatan, and entered New Spain at the river of Grijalva. Proceeding inland he reached Tabasco, and here he fought his first battle with the natives. His victory gave him his invaluable interpreter, the beautiful and faithful Donna Marina. At San Juan de Ulua messengers from Montezuma, the king of Mexico, reached him, bringing rich presents, but objecting to his expressed desire for a visit to the king. Here when the faction of Velazquez within his little force began to express openly their hesitation about proceeding farther, Cortes adroitly got his men to entreat him to change the purpose of the expedition into colonisation and conquest instead of mere trade, and was thereupon formally appointed captain-general and justicia-mayor.
He now founded Vera Cruz, and sent messengers to Charles V. He next united all opposing interests in that of the common safety by burning his ships behind him, and marched to Tlascala, whose warlike inhabitants, subdued after some hard fighting, became henceforward his ever-faithful allies. After some delay he started on his memorable march to Mexico, attended by some thousands of his Tlascalan allies; and at Cholula a treacherous attempt, by orders of Montezuma, to entrap the Spaniards, was frustrated by his sleepless vigilance. On the 8th November 1519 he reached the capital, which Bernal Diaz says appeared when they first saw it like something in a dream, or like one of the enchanted castles in the book of Amadis. The city was situated in a great salt lake communicating with a fresh-water lake, and was approached by three causeways of solid masonry, one two leagues long, with wooden drawbridges at the ends. At the lowest estimate its inhabitants exceeded 300,000. Cortes had not been a week in the city before he had determined to seize the august person of the king, and hold him as a hostage; his pretext being a treacherous attack upon Vera Cruz. Montezuma was paralysed at the heroic audacity of his proposal, and was carried to the Spanish quarters, from which he was never to return. Seventeen of the king's officers brought from Vera Cruz were burned to death in his presence, and Montezuma himself put in irons the while. In general, however, but little apparent restraint was put upon him, and he was allowed to go to his temple accompanied by a guard of one hundred and fifty Spaniards. At length he was constrained to submit to a public act of vassalage to Spain, and to give gold to the value of 100,000 ducats.
But Cortes was far more than an ordinary conquistador; he inquired about the mines and the methods of cultivation, and made wide explorations into the country; while with characteristic religious zeal he destroyed the more hideous Mexican idols, and sternly forbade human sacrifices. Meanwhile, however, the Mexican hatred for the conquering invaders was beginning to surmount their fear, as they began gradually to discover that they were merely mortal men spite of the strange wonder of their horses and cannon, and moreover were miserably few in numbers. In the sixth month of his imprisonment Montezuma asked Cortes to depart. The conqueror craved delay, and learned a few days after the request that eighteen ships had arrived in the bay of San Juan. These ships had been despatched by Velazquez under Pamphilo de Narvaez, who sent a favourable message to Montezuma. Cortes left Alvarado in command, and hastened with but a handful of men to meet Narvaez, whose force numbered 800 men; and at Cholula, amid a blinding storm, surprised him in an unexpected night-attack in which but three of his own handful of heroes fell. The defeated troops gladly embraced the cause of the conqueror.
Fourteen days after the defeat of Narvaez came the news from Alvarado that the Spaniards were besieged in their quarters in Mexico. Cortes at once collected all his men, marched to his lieutenant's relief, and reached the city, 24th June 1520. He found himself face to face with a whole nation in arms under Montezuma's brother as popular leader. A general attack was soon made upon him, and not repulsed without a desperate struggle. On the third day the unhappy Montezuma appeared on a battlement with the view of pacifying his people, but was wounded by a shower of stones—an indignity which broke his heart. Cortes burned the two great idols of the city, but this did not terrify the Mexicans, and he now saw that he must leave the city. His dispositions were quickly made; the start was made at midnight, 1st July 1520. The first bridge was crossed safely by a pontoon which he had prepared for this purpose, but at once the lake was covered with a multitude of canoes, and so furious an attack made that it proved impossible to raise the pontoon to cross the second bridge. Soon the water was choked with a crowd of struggling horses and men, and the retreat became a confused and hopeless rout. The second and third bridgeways were both broken down, but it was at the third that the greatest loss occurred. In the horrors of that awful night (la noche triste) were lost 450 Spaniards, forty-six horses, his artillery, 4000 Indian allies, and most of the Mexican prisoners. At Otumba, whither the miserable handful of survivors had retreated, Cortes found himself encompassed with an innumerable host, and there was a desperate battle, in which every individual Spaniard performed prodigies of valour. The exhausted victors were kindly received by their Tlascalan allies, and Cortes at once began preparations to repair his disaster.
On the 26th December 1520 Cortes reviewed his troops. He had still 550 foot-soldiers, with forty horsemen, and eight or nine cannon. Taking with him 10,000 Tlascalans he marched to Tezcuco, and contrived to form alliances with some of the surrounding Indian tribes. At length his brigantines, built at Tlascala, arrived, carried by a host of Tlascalans; and, after a perilous expedition round the lake, and many ineffectual attempts to come to terms with the Mexicans, he began the formal siege of the city. He himself, with three hundred men, took command of the brigantines, as, in his own words, 'the key of the whole war was in the ships.' After defeating the Mexicans on the lakes, and destroying innumerable canoes, he made a series of simultaneous incursions along the causeways. The Mexicans fought with the fury of despair, and the triumph of the Spaniards proceeded only at the cost of the gradual destruction of the buildings in the city. Meantime the Spaniards themselves suffered desperate hardships from the ambuscades of their sleepless enemy, and becoming impatient, they demanded a general attack, in which they suffered a severe repulse. Although famine and pestilence fought for the Spaniards—as many as fifty thousand Mexicans dying of these during the siege—the city had to be destroyed before it could be taken. It fell at length, 13th August 1521, after a siege of seventy-five days, hardly to be surpassed in the history of the world for obstinacy and valour. Scarce any booty was obtained, the ruined houses were filled with heaps of dead, and almost the entire city had to be rebuilt.
Cortes now showed his wisdom by attempting to restore the native institutions. He rewarded his men with encomiendas or grants of Indians for labour and assistance in colonisation. He was formally appointed governor and captain-general of New Spain in 1522. He next sent out Alvarado on an expedition which led ultimately to the conquest of Guatemala, Sandoval to the north, and Christoval de Olid to Honduras. The last, unfaithful to his trust, rebelled, and the indefatigable Cortes at once set out on a perilous journey to subdue him; but finding his rebellious lieutenant assassinated before his arrival, he returned to New Spain (1526) to find Ponce de Leon invested with the powers of government. In May 1528 he arrived in Spain, was received with marked honour by the king, and created Marquis del Valle de Guaxaca. He returned in July 1530 as captain-general, but to his disappointment was not appointed also civil governor of New Spain. He was poor and broken in health, and henceforward had the continual mortification to see the government muddled by envious and incompetent men. During ten years he was constantly engaged in making new discoveries to the north of Mexico, but now, says Bernal Diaz, 'everything turned to thorns with him;' and in 1540 he returned to Spain. He accompanied the emperor in his unhappy expedition to Algeria, and was mortified by having his offer to take Algiers, if given the command, slighted and despised. Voltaire's story of his proud speech to the emperor as he stood on the step of his carriage: 'I am a man who has given you more provinces than your ancestors have left you cities,' is true in spirit, if not in fact. Cortes wished to return to Mexico, but was not allowed till his impending suits were settled. His last years were darkened by neglect, deepened by the domestic vexation of his daughter Donna Maria's repudiation by a great Spanish noble to whom she had been betrothed. He went to meet her at Seville, fell ill, and died in a small village near that city, 2d December 1547. His body, first buried at Seville, was translated in 1562 to Tezcuco, and in 1629 to Mexico.
The great conquest of Cortes ranks as one of the most splendid achievements in the world's history, and indeed it is more like romantic fable than sober fact. Its hero was no common adventurer or mere courageous soldier, but a captain of admirable sagacity and resource, a statesman of rare penetration and foresight. To the reckless audacity of a Rupert he added the astuteness of a Hannibal—a combination that marks only the highest order of military genius. His whole character was constructed on heroic lines, and is marked with a certain conspicuous grandeur throughout. He was passionate, yet patient; fond of splendour, yet simple in diet; cruel sometimes, yet sincerely religious; silent and reserved, yet capable of inspiring the most devoted as well as the tenderest personal affection. In many things he resembles Cæsar, and like him he possessed that rarest power of knowing, as De Solis says of him, 'how to be a superior without ceasing to be a comrade.' See Prescott's History, and the admirable Life by Sir Arthur Helps (2 vols. 1871).