Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/302

182 these several regards feeling and opinion were subject to daily fluctuations. Let serious danger or reverses come, and they would flee in a moment if they could. And the fleet lying so near was a constant temptation. Cut that off, and the nerves of every man there would be freshly strung. The meanest would suddenly become charged with a kind of nobility; they would at once become inspired with the courage that comes from desperation. Often those least inclined to fight when forced to it are the most indifferent to death. Other dormant elements would be brought out by the disappearance of those ships; union, fraternity, complete community,not only of interest but of life. Their leader with multiplied power would become their god. On him they would be dependent for all things; for food and raiment, for riches, glory, and every success; for life itself. Cortés saw all this, pondered it well, and thought it would be very pretty to play the god awhile. He would much prefer it to confinement in old Velazquez' plaza-pen, or even in a Seville prison. Cortés was now certain in his own mind that if his band remained unbroken either by internal dissension or by white men yet to arrive, he would tread the streets of the Mexican capital before he entered the gates of the celestial city. If Montezuma would not admit him peaceably, he would gather such a force of the emperor's enemies as would pull the kingdom down about his ears. It would be necessary on going inland to leave a garrison at Villa Rica; but it would be madness to leave also vessels in which they could sail away to Cuba or elsewhere. And finally, if the ships were destroyed, the sailors, who otherwise would be required to care for them, might be added to the army. Such were the arguments which the commander would use to win the consent of his people to one of the most desperate and daring acts ever conceived by a strategist of any age or nation.

Not that such consent was necessary. He might destroy the ships and settle with the soldiers after