whether they would remain and take the desperate chance their leader seemed determined on, and to act on that right with or without his consent. And their position assuredly was sound; whether it was sensible depended greatly on their ability to sustain themselves in it. Cortés was exercising the arbitrary power of a majority to drive the minority as it appeared to their death. They had a perfect right to rebel; they had not entered the service under any such compact. Cortés himself was a rebel; hence the rebellion of the Velazquez men, being a rebelling against a rebel, was in truth an adherence to loyalty. Here as everywhere it was might that made right; and, indeed, with the right of these matters the narrator has little to do.
Success, shame, fear, bright prospects, had all lent their aid to hold the discontented in check, but in these several regards feeling and opinion were subject to daily fluctuations.
Let serious danger or reverses come, and they would flee in a moment if they could. And the fleet lying so near was a constant temptation.
Cut that off, and the nerves of every man there would be freshly strung. The meanest would suddenly become charged with a kind of nobility; they would at once become inspired with the courage that comes from desperation.
Often those least inclined to fight when forced to it are the most indifferent to death.
Other dormant elements would be brought out by the disappearance of those ships; union, fraternity, complete community, not only of interest but of life. Their leader with multiplied power would become their god. On him they would be dependent for all things; for food and raiment, for riches, glory, and every success; for life itself.