. Young folks' history of Mexico. e Sancedo, John de Escalante, John Ve-lasquez de Leon, Cristobal de Olid, and the brothers Alva-rado, chief among whom was the famous, or infamous^ Pe-dro de Alvarado. One of the conquerors, in his narrative,justly gives a portion of his pages to a detailed descriptionof the horses^ which, being the first ever landed on the soilof Mexico, aided more than anything else in striking terrorinto the breasts of the Indians. Cortez had already surrounded himself with much stateand ceremony, and had caused a standard to be made ofgold and velvet, on which was a red cr
. Young folks' history of Mexico. e Sancedo, John de Escalante, John Ve-lasquez de Leon, Cristobal de Olid, and the brothers Alva-rado, chief among whom was the famous, or infamous^ Pe-dro de Alvarado. One of the conquerors, in his narrative,justly gives a portion of his pages to a detailed descriptionof the horses^ which, being the first ever landed on the soilof Mexico, aided more than anything else in striking terrorinto the breasts of the Indians. Cortez had already surrounded himself with much stateand ceremony, and had caused a standard to be made ofgold and velvet, on which was a red cross, embroidered inthe midst of white and blue flames, and underneath wasthe motto, in Latin, Let us follow the Cross, and in thatsign we shall conquer If we will bear this emblem inmind, we shall see that throughout his long career of con-quest Cortez was faithful in his devotion to that sign of thecross. Even to the wondering, innocent natives, he offeredthe alternative, the cross or the sword; and he gave themboth. 200 UXMAL. Pedro de Alvarados vessel arrived first at Cozumel, thatbeautiful island on the coast of Yucatan, and that unscru-pulous adventurer immediately^ plundered the inhabitantsand drove them into the woods. Cortez, when he arrived,reprimanded him for this, and for sacking the temples, andsent out to induce the people to return, who soon cameback and mingled unsuspiciously with the soldiers. There was a temple here, and a large and very hideousidol, before which the priests in charge burned incense andbowed down in devotion. The island was considered aholy place, even by the inhabitants of the mainland, whocame to it in great processions, as to a holy shrine. Cortez,seeing this, determined to convert the natives to thetrue faith by changmg their gods, substituting the crossand the virgin for the hideous idols. At first, the peopleobjected, telhng him their gods had always been verygood to them, sending rain when it was needed, andcrops of corn to the
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Keywords: ., bookauthoroberfred, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookyear1883
