Page:Romance of History, Mexico.djvu/40

 the great Spanish university, Hernando went, but he did not study law. Glib of tongue and quick of brain he could, probably, have spun out a lawsuit, and have amassed the coveted ducats as well as any lawyer of his day, but he chose a less arduous course and speedily became the bane of his tutors. Two years of turbulent idleness, and then, gay and unruffled as ever, the youth suddenly reappeared in his home at Medellin to the intense annoyance of his father.

To the quiet household of old Martin Cortés the wild spirits, overbearing temper, and mad pranks of young Hernando were a continual outrage. Just at this time, 1502, the finest fleet hitherto fitted out for the New World was about to sail. It was under the command of Don Nicolas de Ovando, who was to succeed Columbus as Governor of Hispaniola, and it was to transport to that troubled isle two thousand five hundred Spanish colonists. To the relief of all his friends Hernando elected to join the expedition. But one night as, on mischief bent, he scaled a high wall, a loose stone turned under his foot and he was flung heavily to the ground. While he lay at home, bruised and disabled, the fleet sailed.

Two long profitless years went by before the boy had another chance. He was nineteen when at last, in 1504, the year of Queen Isabella's death, he set sail in a very small ship for the Western Indies. So stormy was the voyage that at one time courage failed, and all on board gave themselves up as lost, when suddenly on the topsail yard perched a white dove! "The saints are with us!" cried the sailors, 20