THE

HISTORY

OF

AMERICA.

BY WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D.D.

PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH,
HISTORIOGRAPHER TO HIS MAJESTY FOR SCOTLAND,

AND

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF HISTORY

AT MADRID.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR SHARPE AND SON, W. ALLASON, C. CHAPPLE, W. ROBINSON AND
SONS, T. FISHER, T. M'LEAN, G. AND J. OFFOR, J. CRANWELL, J. EVANS AND
SONS, J. MAYNARD, E. WILSON, T. MASON, J. ROBINS AND CO. AND W. HARWOOD;
ALSO J. ROBERTSON, EDINBURGH; W. TURNBULL, AND RICHARD GRIFFIN AND
CO. GLASGOW.

J. Haddon, Printer, Tabernacle Walk.

1820.
LAVO

Checked
May 1913

PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR

TILDEN FOUNDATION:

THE

HISTORY

OF

AMERICA.

BOOK V. continued.

AFTER a prosperous voyage, Narvaez landed his men without opposition near St Juan de Ulua. Three soldiers, whom Cortes had sent to search for mines in that district, immediately joined him. By this accident he not only received information concerning the progress and situation of Cortes, but as these soldiers had made some progress in the knowledge of the Mexican language, he acquired interpreters, by whose means he was enabled to hold some intercourse with the people of the country. But, according to the low cunning of deserters, they framed their intelligence with more attention to what they thought would be agreeable, than to what they knew to be true; and repre

BOOK
V.

1520.

Cortes deeply alarmed.

sented the situation of Cortes to be so desperate, and the disaffection of his followers to be so general, as increased the natural confidence and presumption of Narvaez. His first operation, however, might have taught him not to rely on their partial accounts. Having sent to summon the governor of Vera Cruz to surrender, Guevara, a priest whom he employed in that service, made the requisition with such insolence, that Sandoval, an officer of high spirit, and zealously attached to Cortes, instead of complying with his demands, seized him and his attendants, and sent them in chains to Mexico.

CORTES received them, not like enemies, but as friends; and, condemning the severity of Sandoval, set them immediately at liberty. By this well-timed clemency, seconded by caresses and presents, he gained their confidence, and drew from them such particulars concerning the force and intentions of Narvaez, as gave him a view of the impending danger in its full extent. He had not to contend now with half-naked Indians, no match for him in war, and still more inferior in the arts of policy, but to take the field against an army, in courage and martial discipline equal to his own, in number far superior, acting under the sanction of royal authority, and commanded by an