Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/64

44 daughter, whose mother was Leonor Pizarro, who afterwards married Juan de Salcedo.

It is thus positively known that besides Marina, there were four other ladies who shared in his affections during this period of the conquest, and meanwhile his first wife Catalina Suarez la Marcaida was alive in Cuba. These undisguised philanderings must have somewhat blighted Marina's romance.

His marriage with Doña Juana de Zuñiga took place when he was at the zenith of his fame. The advantages such an alliance with a noble and powerful family of Castile seemed to promise, though many, were perhaps not as tangible as the ambitious conqueror had hoped. The marriage was negotiated before he and the lady had met, but it does not appear to have been less happy for this conformity to a custom which at that time was universal in noble families. Doña Juana could have seen but little of her restless husband, who was perpetually engaged elsewhere, but she was a good wife, and loved him, just as did Catalina Xuarez and all his mistresses while his uxorious instincts made it easy for him to be equally happy with all of them. He was affectionate and tender, devoted to all of his children, distinguishing but little between his legitimate and his natural offspring in a truly patiarchal fashion. For the latter he secured Bulls of legitimacy from the Pope, and provided generously in his will. Not less strong was his filial piety, and among the first treasure sent to Spain, there went gifts to his father and mother in Medellin, and, after his father's death, he brought his mother to Mexico, where she died, and was buried in the vault at Texcoco, where his own body was afterwards laid.

The Fifth Letter reports the events of his long journey of exploration through Yucatan. In setting forth on this expedition which was to cover a distance of five hundred leagues through savage wilds, Cortes affected