Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/273

Rh inner life was of different dye; that was about all. If any would place Cortés, his genius, and his exploits, below those of the world's greatest generals, because he warred on enemies weaker than their enemies, we have only to consider the means at his command, how much less was his force than theirs. What could the Scipios or the Cæsars have done with half a thousand men; or Washington, or Wellington, with five hundred against five hundred thousand? Napoleon's tactics were always to have at hand more forces than the enemy. In this the Corsican displayed his astuteness. But a keener astuteness was required by Cortés to conquer thousands with hundreds and with tens. Perhaps Moltke, who, with a stronger force, could wage successful war on France, perhaps he, and a handful of his veterans, could land on the deadly shores of the Mexican Gulf, and with Montezuma there, and all the interior as dark to them as Erebus, by strategy and force of arms possess themselves of the country. I doubt it exceedingly. I doubt if one in ten of the greatest generals who ever lived would have achieved what the base bastard Pizarro did in Peru. The very qualities which made them great would have deterred them from anything which, viewed in the light of experience and reason, was so wildly chimerical. Then give these birds of prey their petting, I say; they deserve it. And be fame or infamy immortal ever theirs! Lastly, if any still suspect the genius of Cortés unable to cope with others than Indians, let them observe how he handles his brother Spaniards.

It was about time the municipality should find anchorage; too much travelling by a town of such immaculate conception, of so much more than ordinary signification, were not seemly. Velazquez would deride it; the emperor Charles would wonder at it: therefore half a league below Quiahuiztlan, in the dimpled plain which stretches from its base to the harbor of Bernal at present protecting the ships,