The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-22
MExICO's CONQUEROR.
Has your king any gold?"

ddS your king any &OlQ!
 This was the first question asked by Cortez of the ambassadors sent to him by Montezuma. the ruler of the powerful Mexican empire, when the Spanish adventurer landed on the shores of Mexico nearly four centuries ago. Receiving an affirmative reply. Cortez said. with grim humor:
 Let him send it to me at once, for I and my companions have a com plaint, disease of the heart, which is cured by gold"
 The Spaniard spoke truth in jest, for his heart was hardened and cor roded with the lust for gold. At San tiago. in Cuba, he had employed large numbers of Indians in getting gold for him. How many of whom died in extracting this gold for him. God will have kept a better account than I have" wrote Las Casas.
 This is the 431st anniversary of the birth in Xedellin, Spain, of Hernan4o Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, and beyond doubt the most remarkable of the many remarkable men the dtscov- cry of the New World brought out from obscurity. A sickly. youth, he was many times at the point of death during his childhood. At 19 he left Spain and went to San Domingo. He was then well educated. of graceful address, amiable manners. and great skill in military exercises. In San De- mingo and later in Cuba he developed that coolness and self-command which stamped him a leader of men, and by his ability aroused the enmity of his superior officers, and twice mar rowly escaped hanging.
 It was in 151S. when Cortez was 33, that heNwas placed in command of an expedition to Mexico, and he set out from Santiago with 10 ships. 630 Spaniards, about 800 Indians. a few negroes, dozen horses, 10 brass guns. and some falconots. He had scarcely sailed when velasquez, the Cuban governor. repented of the appointment he had made, and endeavored to stop the expedition, but Cortez disregarded orders and sailed on.
 In the March of 1519 he landed on the shores of Mexico. in the province called Tabasco. There he heard of Montezuma, the native sovereign who ruled over a mighty empire which had endured for centuries. Having heard that the Emperor possessed much gold. Cortez decided to have try for it." He laid the foundation of the town of Vera Cruz as a post to be left in his rear; destroyed his ships, to render return impossible; took the part of several native tribes against the tax collectors of Montezuma, and thus gained their friendship and aid, and then, leaving a small garrison in Vera Cruz plunged into the interior at the head of few hundred men.
 On landing in Mexico Cortez found the natives hostile. but tho sight of horses and the roar of artillery had been too much for their nerves. Cor tez hoped that the effect would be the same on other tribes, but in the re- public of Tlascala, an independent province, bitterly at feud with Mon- tezuma, he had to fight four battles before he subdued the natives He then marched on to Mexico with 5000 natives and his handful of Span iards, and was received with great pomp by Montezuma Cortez repaid this hospitality by treacherously talk ing the Emperor captive. and extort- ing from him a vast store of gold. Later, while Cortez was absent. the natives revolted, but in 1920 great battle was fought which decided the fate of Mexico. Cortez soon recon ouered the capital. In the end he shared the fate of most of the Spanish explorers and conquerors. He died in 1547, near Seville, Spain, alone and neglected by the monarch to whose dominions he had added mighty em- rfre. /