Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/506

486 power to sweep them from his path, he endured in angry patience every indignity and wrong rather than place himself on record as other than law-abiding and a lover of good conduct. His domestic life during his second marriage seems to have been one of great felicity; we find him the kindest of parents and a devoted husband, though from his earlier libertinisms the contrary might have been expected. We have seen that till his last moments he showed the greatest solicitude for the welfare of his entire family.

In mind and manners, in adventure, war, diplomacy, he everywhere displayed great versatility. There was little that he could not do; there was little he could not do better than another. Were ships required, he would make them; were they in the way, he would burn them. Did he want powder, there was the sulphur of the volcano; did he lack iron for guns, he used silver or copper. Were the hosts of Andhuac too many for him, he turned against them other hosts before whom he was likewise in point of numbers an insignificant enemy. But though his feats as an Indian-fighter were wonderful, it is not in these that we find him at his best. A stupid slur was that made during the Algiers expedition by the king's courtier, who said that Cortés would find the Moors a very different enemy from naked Americans. Cortés was a match for any Moor, or any Spaniard; indeed his most brilliant exploits were achieved when he found himself opposed by his own countrymen; and he was scarcely less successful as a ruler than as a military leader.

His nature, as we everywhere have seen, was one ef emphasis and intensity. Affairs of gallantry he conducted with as much skill and persistency as were required to win a battle. The grave and courtly manners by which the Spaniard commonly veils his real character were in Cortés modified by a freeness and vivacity due in a great measure to New World influences.