Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/50

24 we gave the river the name of San Antonio, which it still has upon the maps. And we also passed the mouth of the great Coatzacoalcos, where we would gladly have run in the bay, if winds had not prevented. Soon we sighted great snow mountains, crested with snow the whole year round, and other mountains, too, nearer the sea, which we called San Martin because a soldier of that name, who came from Havana, was the first to see them.

So we kept on our course, all four ships together, when we came to the mouth of another river, which we called the Banderas or flag stream, because there a troop of Indians filled the river banks, and each lance they bore carried a flag of white cloth with which they waved to and beckoned us.

By this time the great city of Mexico must be known throughout Christendom—how like Venice it was built in the water, how it was governed by a mighty monarch, Montezuma, king of countries more than four times as large as Spain, a lord so powerful he would extend his rule beyond what was possible and would know things he never could learn. This great Montezuma had received news of our visit under Cordova the year before, and of what happened at the battle of Chanpoton during this present voyage, and he knew that we soldiers, merely a handful, had defeated the warriors of that town and