Page:Romance of History, Mexico.djvu/320

 seek, perhaps, to expiate the past when he bequeathed to Mexico money for the foundation of a hospital, a convent, and a college for missionaries? On his heir Don Martin he laid a solemn charge: "Because doubts have arisen with respect to those natives of New Spain who have been made slaves . . . whether they can be held with a sufficiently good conscience or not, and up to this time the question is not settled, I desire that it should be ascertained what in this matter ought to be done in respect of those which I hold. And I charge upon my son and heir Don Martin, and upon his successors, that they should use all diligence for the discharge of my conscience and theirs in this matter."

In the hour of his own extremity Cortés did not forget the veterans who had served him so loyally and well. He left money for two thousand masses to be said for the souls of his followers. His high position as Marquess had not made him too proud to keep up his friendship with his old comrades. "He preferred," says Diaz, "to be called Cortés by us than by any title; and with good reason, for the name of Cortés is as famous in our day as was that of Cæsar among the Romans or of Hannibal among the Carthaginians."

And as the personality of Cæsar and of Hannibal could seize upon Roman and Carthaginian alike, so did the personality of Cortés seize upon the imagination of his followers. "In his whole appearance and presence," says Diaz, "in his discourse, his table, his dress, in everything, in short, he had the air of a great lord. His clothes were in the fashion of the 278