Hernán Cortés

"My louing fellowes and déere friendes, it is certayne that euery valiant manne of stoute courage, doth procure by déedes to make him selfe equall with the excellente men of his time, yea and with those that were before his time. So it is that I do now take in hād such an entarprise, as godwilling shall be héereaster of greate fame, for myne heart doth pronosticate vnto mée, that we shall winne greate and rich Countreys, and ma∣nye people, as yet neuer séene to anye of oure nation, yea and (I beléeue) greater Kingdomes than those of oure Kinges. And I assure you, that the desire of glory dothe furthèr extend, than treasure, the whiche in forte, mortall life doth obtayne."

"We ought (louing fellowes) to leaue off small things, when great matters doe offer themselues. And euen as my trust is in God, euen so greater profite shall come to our kings, and a nation of this oure enterprise, than hath héeretofore of any other. I doe not speake how acceptable it will be to God our sauiour, for whose loue I do chiefly and willingly hazard my goods and trauel. I will not nowe treat of the perils and danger of life that I haue passed since I began this voyage. This I say, that good men doe rather expect renoune, than treasure. We doe now attempt and begin warre that is both good and iust, and the almighty God in whose name and holy faith this voyage is begonne, will assuredly graunte vnto vs victory, and the time will shew the end of things well begonne."

"Héere déere friends do I lay before you great gaynes, but wrapped in greate trauell, yet Vertue is an enimie to idlenesse .&c. Therefore if you will accept hope for Vertue, or Vertue for hope, and also if ye forsake me not, as I will not forsake you, I will with Gods help make you in shorte time the richest men that euer passed this way. I doe sée you are but fewe in number, but yet such men of haughtie courage, that no force or strength of Indians can offende. Likewise wée haue experience, that Christ our sauiour hathe alwayes fauoured our nation in these parties. Therfore my déere friendes, let vs now in Gods name depart ioyfull, exspecting good successe, according to our beginning .&c."

"Hernan Cortés was a conquistador, one of the murderous and avaricious conquerors who brought so much of the New World under the harsh rule of Spain. Arriving in Mexico at the head of a mercenary army, he slaughtered the innocent and pillaged the land, destroying the civilization of the Aztecs and enriching himself beyond his wildest dreams."

"He was avaricious, yet liberal; bold to desperation, yet cautious and calculating in his plans; magnanimous, yet very cunning; courteous and affable in his deportment, yet inexorably stern; lax in his notions of morality, yet (not uncommon) a sad bigot. The great feature in his character was constancy of purpose; a constancy not to be daunted by danger, nor baffled by disappointment, nor wearied out by impediments and delays."

"He was a knight-errant, in the literal sense of the word. Of all the band of adventurous cavaliers whom Spain, in the sixteenth century, sent forth on the career of discovery and conquest, there was none more deeply filled with the spirit of romantic enterprise than Hernando Cortés."

"Cortés was not a vulgar conqueror. He did not conquer from the mere ambition of conquest. If he destroyed the ancient capital of the Aztecs, it was to build up a more magnificent capital on its ruins. If he desolated the land and broke up its existing institutions, he employed the short period of his administration in digesting schemes for introducing there a more improved culture and a higher civilization. In all his expeditions he was careful to study the resources of the country, its social organisation, and its physical capacities. He enjoined it on his captains to attend particularly to these objects. If he was greedy of gold, like most of the Spanish cavaliers in the New World, it was not to hoard it, nor merely to lavish it in the support of a princely establishment, but to secure funds for prosecuting his glorious discoveries. Witness his costly expeditions to the Gulf of California. His enterprises were not undertaken solely for mercenary objects; as is shown by the various expeditions he set on foot for the discovery of a communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific. In his schemes of ambition he showed a respect for the interests of science, to be referred partly to the natural superiority of his mind, but partly, no doubt, to the influence of early education. It is, indeed, hardly possible that a person of his wayward and mercurial temper should have improved his advantages at the University; but he brought away from it a tincture of scholarship seldom found among the cavaliers of the period, and which had its influence in enlarging his own conceptions. His celebrated Letters are written with a simple elegance, that...have caused them to be compared to the military narrative of Caesar. It will not be easy to find in the chronicles of the period a more concise yet comprehensive statement, not only of the events of his campaigns, but of the circumstances most worthy of notice in the character of the conquered countries."

"The subject of Cortés' religious beliefs baffles all but the fortunately simple who, like the first historian of the Mexican church, Fr. Mendieta, believe that Cortés was chosen by God to carry out His purposes. The evidence is a conflicting as that relating to the colour of his hair. "Even though he was a sinner, he had faith and did the work of a good Christian," wrote the Franciscan priest Motolina, who knew him well (being his confessor) in later life, adding that "he confessed with many tears and placed his soul and treasure in the hands of his confessor". His favourite oath was "by my conscience". Yet Diego de Ordaz, who saw him most days for the next eighteen months, would write in 1519 that Cortés had "no more conscience than a dog". He was "addicted to women in excess", greedy, and loved the "worldly pomp" of which he would speak disdainfully in his will; yet he preached well, prayed often, and usually wore a gold chain with a picture of the Virgin on one side and John the Baptist on the other."