Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/73

Rh unannounced, and hence no fitting reception had been prepared there, but accident supplied a more remarkable grouping of interesting men of the century than design could have provided. Within the modest walls of Santa Maria la Rabida, where Columbus had found hospitality, there met with Cortes, who was accompanied by Gonzalo de Sandoval and Andres de Tapia, Francisco Pizarro, whose brilliant career in South America, rivalling that of Cortes in the North, was just dawning; and by a fateful coincidence, there was also in the suite of Cortes, the Spanish soldier Juan de Rada, by whose hand Pizarro was destined to perish in Peru. The date of his arrival at Palos is given by Bernal Diaz as December 1527, but Herrera's authority for the later date has been followed by Prescott, Alaman, and other historians.

The triumphal home-coming was marred at the very outset by the death of Gonzalo de Sandoval at Palos, a few days after their landing. For none of his captains did "Cortes cherish the affection he felt for this gallant young soldier, who was his fellow-townsman and loyal friend. Sandoval was buried at La Rabida, and Cortes first went on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Guadeloupe, where he spent some days in mourning his loss, and having masses celebrated for the departed soul. This pious duty accomplished he set out for Toledo, where the Court then was, and as the news of his arrival had spread, and had also been announced by his own letter to the Emperor, he was everywhere accorded a veritable triumph by the people, who flocked from all sides to see the hero of the great conquest, and to gaze upon the marvellous trophies which he brought; so that since the first return of Columbus no such demonstrations had been seen in Spain.

A brilliant group of nobles comprising the Duke of Bejar, the Counts of Aguilar and Medellin, the Grand Prior of St. John, and many of the first citizens of Toledo, rode out from the city to meet the conqueror on the