Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/159

Rh whatsoever his strength permitted, it was right for him to do. He was a sort of Mephistopheles, decked in manners and guided by knowledge. Besides the world, he knew books, and how to make somewhat of them. Earnestly devoted to the service of the church, many of his acts yet met with its most unqualified condemnation. Possessed of vehement aspirations, his ambition was of the aggressive kind; not like that of Velazquez, mercenary and timid. Like Tigellinus Sophonius, it was to his pleasing person and unscrupulous character that the alcalde owed his rise from poverty and obscurity; and now, like Phaethon, if for one day he might drive the governor's sun-chariot across the heavens, it would be his own fault if he were not a made man. This much at this time we may say of Hernan Cortés, for such was the alcalde's name; which is more than he could say for himself, not knowing himself as we know him, and more than his associates could say of him. Hereafter as his character develops we shall become further acquainted with him. It is as difficult to detect the full-grown plant in a seed as in a stone, and yet the seed will become, a great tree, while the stone remains a stone.

And so, with the aid of his loving friends Duero and Láres, whose deft advice worked successfully on the plastic mind of Velazquez, and because he possessed some money and many friends, as well as courage and wisdom, the alcalde of Santiago was proclaimed captain-general of the expedition. And