Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/200

LEFT CORTISSOZ 164 coEviD-aa quarters in the capital. The Mexicans strove with equal courage, and infinitely preponderating numbers, against the superior weapons and discipline of the Europeans, who throughout the strug- gle were gallantly supported by their Tlascalan confederates. Cortez was now, at last, obliged to evacuate the city, July 1, 1520. Encouraged by this suc- cess, the Mexicans followed the Span- iards, and fought the battle of Otumba, in which they were badly defeated. After receiving some re-enforcements, he again advanced upon the Mexican capital. Guatemozin was now Emperor of Mexico, and had learned the inability of his troops to face the Europeans in the open field. He remained within the city, which Corrtez besieged. The geo- graphical position of the city, and the great number of native allies who now served under him, enabled Cortez to establish a strict blockade. Many as- saults were made, and met with various fortune. Fire and the sword swept away thousands of the Mexicans, but famine was their most fatal foe; and Mexico, on Aug. 13, 1521, surrendered, and the whole of its vast empire became subject to the crown of Spain. _ Cortez disgraced his triumph by putting the brav© Guatemozin to a cruel death, an act of which he is said to have after- ward deeply repented. The domestic enemies of the conqueror of Mexico had, meanwhile, been busy in their intrigues against him at the Spanish court, and in 1528 Cortez returned to Spain to face his accusers. He was coldly received, and he could not prevail on Charles V. to continue him in the governorship of Mexico. He returned to America in 1530, a powerful and wealthy noble, but without public authority. He made sev- eral brilliant and important voyages of discovery along the Californian and other coasts of the Pacific. In 1540 he finally returned to Spain, where he was treated by his sovereign with ungra- cious neglect. He died near Seville, Dee. 2, 1547. CORTISSOZ, ROYAL, an American journalist and art critic, born in New York City. He served as literary editor and art editor of the New York "Trib- une," and contributed many articles on art subjects to magazines. He was the author of the lives of Augustus St. Gaudens (1907), and John La Farge (1911), and also edited several works. CORTLAND, a village and county-seat of Cortland co., N. Y.; on the Tioughni- oga river; and the Lackawanna, the Lehiffh Valley, and the New York Central railroads; 37 miles S. of Syra- cuse. It is a farming and manufactur- ing trade center, and has several wire- works, foundries, machine shops, and manufactories of carriages, stoves, har- ness, furniture, cash registers, and steel ware. It is the seat of a State Normal School, and has electric lights and rail- ways, several churches, daily and weekly newspapers, 2 National banks, etc. Pop. (1910) 11,504; (1920) 13,294. CORUNA. See Corunna. CORUNDUM, a rhombohedral trans- parent or translucent mineral, very tough when compact. Its hardness is 9, its sp. gr. 3.9-4.16. Its luster is gen- erally vitreous; its colors blue, red, yel- low, brown, gray, or nearly white; its streak in all cases colorless. It_ consists of pure alumina. Chemically viewed, it is aluminum-oxide, AUOs. There are three varieties of it — sapphire, corun- dum proper, and emery. It includes the species of the genus which are dark in color and only translucent; but its hues may be light blue, gray, brown, or black. The United States imports corundum to the value of $100,000 every year, princi- pally from Canada. CORUNNA (Spanish Comna), a sea- port of Spain, in the province of the same name in Galicia, on the N. W. coast, on a peninsula at the entrance of the bay of Betanzos. It consists of an upper and a lower town, the former built on the E. side of a small peninsula, and the latter on the isthmus connecting the peninsula with the mainland. The harbor, which is well protected, is deep, spacious and safe. Cattle form the chief export. There is a government tobacco factory employing thousands of women and girls. There is a lightJiouse, 92 feet high, called the Tower of Hercu- les, and supposed to be of Roman con- struction. Corunna was the port of de- parture of the Spanish Armada (1588), and the scene of the repulse of the French and the death of Sir John Moore (1809). Pop. about 60,000. CORVEE, an obligation on the tenants or inhabitants of certain districts to per- form certain services for their lord, such as the maintenance of roads, etc. CORVETTE, a term applied to a flush- deck vessel, ship- or bark-rigged, having only one tier of guns, either on the upper or main deck. The term is no longer used in the navy. CORVID^, a family of conirostral birds containing the crows and their allies. Their nest is of sticks, lined with soft materials. They may be divided into five sub-families: (1) strepeHnx, or pip- ing crows; (2) gannilinx, or jays; (3)