Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/143

Rh As the voyagers sailed westward along the coast for several hundred miles they saw with admiring eyes pleasant villages surrounded with luxuriant trees and widespreading fields. The houses and temples, so lofty and white in the distance, reminded the strangers of their native land, and they called the whole region New Spain—a name it bore on European maps for many a year.

While Grijalva was on the borders of Mexico the great council of the Aztec nation sent some of their police-officers down to the coast to interview the visitors. They could communicate with each other only by signs, it is true, but in this pursuit of knowledge under difficulties both parties were deeply impressed. The Aztecs gave Grijalva to understand that they came by the orders of Montezuma, a great chief who lived some distance from Tabasco, to the north-west. This is the first mention in European history of the now-famous chief, Montezuma.

Touching at San Juan d'Ulua, the Spaniards saw a temple where bloody remains showed that human sacrifices had just been offered. This sickening sight stirred up their religious zeal and reminded them that the conversion of the savages to Christianity should be one great object in their journey to the West.

As soon as possible after his nephew's return Governor Velasquez prepared to follow up his expedition with one which should bring more glory to Spanish arms and more gold into his own pockets. Grijalva had done so much better as an explorer than he had done as a soldier that he was displaced and the command given to Hernando Cortez, who had been one of the conquerors of Cuba in 1511, and was now master of a fine plantation. He was young, handsome, enterprising and popular; recruits flocked to his standard, and six ships were