The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1923-09-07
CAPTAINS OF
ADVENTURE
By ROGER POCOCK
CopSrgh sMerrmC onpany

these AZtecs were only barbarians to
be conquered, and heather cannibals
doomed TO hell unless they accepted
the faith. To them the Cholula mas
sacre was only a military precaution.
They thought 1t right to seize their
generous host the emperor, to hold
him as a prisoner under guard, and
one day even put him in irons. For
six months MonteZuma reigned under
Spanish orders. overwhelmed with
shame. He loved his captors because
they were gallant gentlemen, he free
ly gave them his royal treasure OF
gems, and gold. and brilliant feather
robes. Over the plunder-a million
and a half sterling In gold alone
they squabbled; clear proof to Monte
yuma that they were not all divine.
Yet still they were friends, 50 he gave
them all the spears@and bows from his
arsenal as fuel TO burn some OF his
mobiles who had affronted them.
II was at this time that the hostile
governor OF Cuba sent Narvaes with
seventeen ships and a strong force to
arrest the conqueror for rebellion. The
odds were only three to one, instead
of the usual hundred to one against
him, so Cortes went down to the coast,
gave Narvaes a thrashing. captured
him, enrolled his men by way Of re-
Inducements, and returned with a
force Of eleven hundred troops.
He had left his friend, Alvarado,
with a hundred men TO hold the capt.
tai and guard the emperor. This Al
varado. so fair that the natives called
him Child Of the Sun, was such a
fool that he massacred six hundred IN
armed mobiles and gentlefolk for being
pagans. violated the great temple, and
so aroused the whole power Of the
fiercest nation on earth TO war OF ven-
geance. Barely In time TO save Alvar-
ado, Cortes re-entered the city TO be
besieged. Again and again the Aztecs
attempted TO storm the palace. The
emperor in his robes Of state addressed
them from the ramparts, and they
shot hiB. They seized the great tenn
pie which overlooked the palace, and
this the Spaniards stormed.
In face Of awful losses day by day
the Spaniards, starving and desperate,
cleared a road through the city, and
on the night of Montezuma's death
they attempted TO retreat by one OF
the causeways leading TO the main
land. Three canals cut this road. and
the drawbridges had been taken away,
but Cortes brought portable bridge
TO span them. They crossed the first
as the gigantic sobbing gong upon the
heights Of the temple aroused the en-
tire city.
Heavily beset from the rear, and by
thousands Of men in canoes. they found
that the weight OF their transport had
jammed the bridge which could not
be removed They filed the second
gap with rocks, with their artillery and
transport, with chests OF gold, horses,
and dead men. So they came TO the
third gap, no longer an army but as a
flying mob of Spaniards and Tlascalan
warriors bewiIdered in the rain and
the darkness by the headlopg despera-
ton Of the attacking host. They were
compelled TO swim, and at least fifty
OF the recruits were drowned by the
weight Of gold they refused to leave,
while many were captured to be sacri-
feed upon the Aztec affairs. Monte
zuma's children were drowned, and
hundreds more, while Cortes and his
cavaliers. swimming their horses back
and forth conveyed the column, and AL
varado with his. rear guard held the
causeway.
Last in the retreat, grounding his
spear butt, he leaped the chasm, q
feat Of daring which has given a name
forever to this place as Alvarado's
Leap. And just beyond, upon the
mainland there is an ancient tree be-
meath which Cortes. as the dawn broke
out, sat on the ground and cried. He
had lost four hundred fifty Spaniards,
and thousands of Tlascalans, his rec
ords, artillery, muskets, stores and
treasure in that lost battle Of tha
Dreadful Night.
A week later the starved and wound
ed force was beset by an army Of two
hundred thousand Aztecs. They had
only their swords now, but, after long
hours of fighting, Cortes himself killed
the Aztec general. so by his matchless
valor and leadership gaining a vic
tory.
The rest is tale of horror beyond
telling, for, rested and reinforced. thu
Spaniards went back. They invested,
besieged, stormed and burned the fam
ine-stricken, pestilence-ridden capital.
city choked and heaped with the I'M
buried dead of a most valiant nation.
Afterward. under the Spanish vice
roys, Mexico was extended and en-
larged TO the edge Of Alaska, a Chris
tan civilized state renowned for
mighty works Of engineering, the splen-
dor OF her architecture, and for such
inventions as the national pawn-shop,
as bank to help the poor. One Of the
so-called native Slaves" Of the mines
once wrote 10 the king OF Spain, beg
ging his majesty to visit Mexico and
offering TO make a royal road for him,
paving the two hundred fifty miles
from Vera Cruz to the capital with
ingots of pure silver as a gift to SPAIN
Letters marked Private" are ape