CHAPTER XXIX. KING-MAKING AND CONVERTING. October-December, 1520.

since the result could only be disastrous, the native lord having, beside, tendered allegiance to Cortés in Montezuma’s time.⁸ But the captain would not listen to him. To the joy of Cortés, however, a storm arose, which obliged this captain to slip his anchor and put to sea; obliged him to take refuge in San Juan de Ulua harbor, where he found his vessel so unsafe as to require her to be stranded, whereupon the forces and armaments were landed.⁹ Cortés at once sent a sympathizing message, offering the captain every assistance, but never for a moment intending to give him any. He even tendered other vessels for his voyage—so he tells the emperor.¹⁰ But there is no doubt that the tender was illusive, and that he did all in his power, with bribery, promises, and even force, to secure the men and armament, and at the same time to weaken his rivals by their loss. According to some accounts he caused their vessels to be sunk to prevent departure,¹¹ an act which Oviedo declares a fair war measure, particularly on the part of Cortés, who greatly needed reinforcements. Men destined for so comparatively unattractive a region as Pánuco must have been pleased by the prospect of ready spoils and Mexican treasures soon to fall into their hands under so able and successful a leader as Cortés. They were therefore readily induced to join him, the captains alone, as in the last instance, interposing objections for a while. These several accessions amounted, according to the testimony of Cortés, to about two hundred men and some twenty horses,¹² together with a large quantity of small-arms, artillery, and ammunition. Thus again and again was the shrewd and lucky Cortés aided by the very means which his great enemies and rivals had sent to be used against him; aided to reap the advantages they had planned and plotted to secure. And all the while he was pitting the antagonisms of native foes one against another, employing them also to assist him in securing the grand prize. Greatness is but another name for good fortune. Circumstances certainly did as much for Cortés in promoting success as Spanish arms and superior civilization.