Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/624

604 would have won his way on reaching Española, or if he would have succeeded as farmer or lawyer, or would have made money or love, or how he would have carried himself with the crusty old Velazquez on Cuba Island, or what would have been his line of action when the men mutinied at Villa Rica, at the meeting with Montezuma, on the arrival of Narvaez, after the Noche Triste, and in a hundred other cases where one mistake would have been fatal. On the other hand, had the hero of a hundred battles, the winner in a hundred desperate adventures, been denied the poverty, the labor, the hardships, and the discipline which he experienced, and had he been born on a pinnacle of glory, there is no telling whether he would have remained there even for these few years. Whosoever is high must be brought low; and fortunately it is so; for were it not for the certain follies of successive generations, nine tenths of mankind would be in a state of slavery.

Look at this high favorite of fortune! Little dreamed the Estremaduran as he passed from Española to Cuba that an heir of his should ever occupy so proud a position. Cortés, the father, complained to the king that he had not enough; for all his great services and out of all his great conquests there was next to nothing for him; and he made his old age a burden in brooding over the injustice done him, and in begging for greater rewards. He would have added to his fame wealth and authority; he would have for his heir wealth and position. And the heir had it. At one time he received from the New World almost as much as the crown, one hundred and fifty thousand pesos per annum, and he had from forty thousand to sixty thousand vassals. In his way he was the first man in America, the most famous, the wealthiest, occupying the highest social position. He could not be viceroy; he could not hold important office. It was too dangerous to Spanish monarchy. But he could be the social sovereign of Mexico. He could